Indiana Jones and the Black TigerCat
by Alexa S. Blaze
Summary: Sequel to "Key of Pandora". Sallah's gone missing, so Marion, Indiana, Mutt and Madie head to Egypt to try and find him. Along the way, they uncover tales of family betrayal, ancient Egyptian mysteries, and something even more important - cats. MUTTxOC and INDIANAxMARION.
1. When It Rains

**A/N: **Hello all! I'm Alexa (Lexi) Blaze, and in case you didn't know, this is my sequel to the story 'Indiana Jones and the Key of Pandora.' If you haven't read it, then here is a quick summary:

_19-year-old Madison Clarke's uncle goes missing, and she seeks Indiana Jones's help to find him. There are Russians and a British man named Claymore who are looking for Pandora's Box, a Greek object said to have housed all the evils of the world, until Pandora let them go. Madison, who prefers to be called Madie, has the key to said box, and so she is attacked by the Russians, and forced to come along with Indiana to search for the Box and her uncle. Mutt and Marion join them on their quest through (London) England, (Paris) France, and (Athens) Greece. In the end, Mutt and Madie develop rather strong feelings for each other, and all the wrongs are righted when Indiana finds the Box and safely gets it out of the hands of the Russians and Claymore. _

I don't think you will need to read that story to understand this one, but some parts might be unclear. For instance, if I make references to the older story they won't make sense, and you won't really understand Madie's background. All the same, to those readers who have continued to read this series, I sincerely hope you enjoy this! The full summary is:

_Sequel to Key of Pandora. Sallah's gone missing, so Marion, Indiana, Mutt and Madie return to Egypt to try and find him. Along the way, they uncover tales of family betrayal, ancient Egyptian mysteries, pharaohs, and something even more important - cats._

Reviews are greatly appreciated, even if they are just to tell me that you will continue to read this series. I would like to know that _someone_ is listening to my stories!

There are pictures on my profile of who I think would portray Madie (and the other characters) if this were a movie :)

Sorry this chapter is so short, and sorry that nothing really happens. It will get better though, I promise.

I own nothing you recognize and I don't own Indiana Jones. The song at the beginning is 'When It Rains' (because it's raining in the story, heehee) by Paramore.

And now, without further ado, I present to you...

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 1: _When It Rains_

_And when it rains/on this side of town it touches everything/just say it again and mean it/we don't miss a thing_

XxXxX

**Sunday, December 8th, 1957**

Marion Jones's POV

"Goddammit, Indiana, you're supposed to crack the eggs before you put them in the pancake batter, not put them in 'shells and all!'"

"Sorry Marion. I told you I couldn't cook to save my life."

"Now we're going to have to start this batch all over again – _for the fourth time_."

"Can't we just order pizza?"

"Not for breakfast, no! Besides, Madie's here. I don't want her thinking we order in for every meal."

"But we do."

"Oh, you're no help!" I laughed, throwing down the towel I was holding and dumping Indiana's pancake batter in the sink. We were trying - and failing - to make pancakes. "I swear, Mutt's a better cook than you." Mutt Jones was my 19-year-old son with my husband Henry Jones, Junior, but he preferred to be called Indiana. We had hardly been married for more than four months, but we had known each other for a long time before then. Indy and I had been reunited in Peru when we had been searching for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"No he's not…" Indy murmured just under his breath, hoping I wouldn't hear, but I did.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said accusingly, putting my hands on my hips. "He cooked almost every meal for us after the crash when his leg was broken." In early October, Mutt had been involved in a rather serious car crash, almost killing him. He had only recently gotten the cast off of his broken leg.

"Yeah, but did you ever notice that whenever Madie wasn't here for dinner, Mutt usually ordered in pizza?" Indiana said, waving around a wooden spatula. "He got Madie to cook for him."

"Madie came over to our house because she couldn't stand her parents, who were practically killing her for going out with Mutt," I said, but I did realize that my husband had a point.

"That wasn't the only reason," Indiana smiled. "Mutt burns water. Madison was glad to cook for him." Madison Clarke was a preppy the same age as Mutt, and I had only met her in September, when we had gone on an adventure searching for Pandora's Box. Oh, and did I mention that she was Mutt's girlfriend?

I sighed. "Well, no matter who made all our dinners for the past couple of months, it's up to us now. Ever since Mutt got his cast off, he's been outdoors doing something active every day. He couldn't stand being cooped up at home, unable to do any sports."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," I said, rushing to the front door. It was pouring rain outside, and there was thunder and lightning every couple of minutes, so no one really wanted to be outside unless they had to be. As it was, the person now at our door was one of those people - the mailman, come to deliver our bills and letters.

"Mrs. Jones," he said politely when I opened the door, handing over a pile of letters. "You've got quite the haul-in today," he chuckled, pointing at the 13 pieces of mail he had given us.

"Oh, you poor dear," I said, taking in his soaking wet clothing. "Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?"

"We don't have any more tea, Marion," Indiana called from the kitchen. "I put it in the second batch of pancakes by accident, remember?"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the letter carrier. "It's quite alright," he said, pulling his hat more firmly over his hair. "Yours was my last delivery; I get to go home now," he smiled.

"It must be a pretty hard job, getting up super early every morning in the rain to give people their mail," I frowned, sympathetic for the man. Suddenly, two Arab men in black jumped out of a car I hadn't previously noticed sitting on the curb, and they rushed up the front steps to the house Indiana and I had bought after we were married.

"Excuse me, Mrs, but there's been a mix-up. One of those letters is ours, and I would be delighted if you could just hand over that pile so I could find it," one of the men said with an Arabian accent.

The mailman, who was still standing on the doorstep, frowned. "No, I'm pretty sure all those letters were addressed to the Jones house..." he mused.

I glanced quickly through the letters. "Yes, all these letters are addressed to my husband. I'm sorry, gentlemen."

"No, I'm sure one of those letters is ours," the shorter of the two men said, reaching for the pile in my hand, but I snatched them away.

"Don't touch my mail," I grumbled.

"There is a letter from Egypt that you have that is of utmost importance to us," the first Arab said. "We need it back immediately."

Flipping through the letters again, I found the one he was talking about, but I shook my head. "It's addressed to Indiana. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really have to get going."

"But we really need that letter!" the second man yelled, jumping for it, but the first man in black held him back.

"Fine," he said, glaring at me. "But let this be a warning. You do _not _want to open that envelope." This only made me want to open the mail even more. I was about to open my mouth to say something back when a loud crash sounded from the kitchen.

"Shit. Marion, I think I broke the toaster," Indy yelled at me. Sighing, I glared at the Arabs and then said goodbye to the mailman and sent him on his way, closing the door and walking back to the kitchen, which now looked like a bomb had gone off in it.

"Actually, no, it was the blender that you broke," I smiled, pointing my husband towards the broom so that he could clean up the mess. Who would have thought that _Indiana Jones_ of all people would get lost in his own kitchen?

I slid into a chair at the counter, clearing away some of the clutter so that I could put my elbows on the table. I read the titles of the letters out loud to Indy as I flipped through them: "Water bill, lighting bill, another bill, electricity bill, bill, more bills, bill, paycheck from the university, bill, letter from a student who's handing in his paper on ancient Greece three weeks late, bill, bill… oh, look! Here's a letter from Sallah, addressed to you!" I waved a letter in an old yellow envelope in front of Indiana's nose. "I wonder how he got your new address, and why he didn't mail this to the old apartment?"

"He probably found the address through the university," Indiana mumbled, pulling out a garbage bag to put the blender in. "Open it up. I want to read it; I haven't talked to him in a couple of years." Sallah was Indiana's best friend, and he lived in Egypt, where he was well-known for being the best digger there. They had been on a ton of archaeological adventures together, including when I had found the Ark of the Covenant with them.

Wait, so those two men in black hadn't wanted me to read _Sallah's _letter? What was wrong with it?

I tore open the envelope and pulled the letter out slowly, surveying the handwriting. It was decidedly feminine; this letter was from Sallah's wife Fayah. As I scanned through it, a frown etched itself on my face as I became increasingly worried. "Indyyyy…"

He heard the anxious tone in my voice and rushed over, dropping the blender parts on his toe in haste. Once he was done yelling in pain, he stood behind me, reading over my shoulder.

"Unknown organization… three weeks gone… ransacked house… Sallah's gone missing, and Fayah thinks he's been kidnapped!" he exclaimed in anger and surprise. "She's notified the police, but they haven't done anything about it, so they're seeking my help!" he finished reading the hastily-written letter. Running a hand over his face, Indiana sighed. "What are we supposed to do? We're on the other side of the world, for God's sake!"

I flipped through the mail again, pulling out the paycheck from the university. "We could always put this to good use," I winked, waving the letter under his nose. "Come on, Indy. We can't just forget about them. He's got nine children, and he's your best friend! Something has to be done: I say we buy four plane tickets to Egypt and track down Sallah. It'll be another adventure!" I smiled.

He glared at me. "_Four_ tickets?"

"What, did you actually think we would leave Madie behind?" I scoffed, faking that I was offended.

Indiana bit his lip, trying to think it all through. His best friend _had_ gone missing, and Fayah said that Indy was their last hope of finding him…

"Fine. We'll go," Indiana smiled. "It'll do us all some good to get out of the house again and maybe even partake in an adventure. Besides, Madie's been bugging me constantly about it, and I can tell that Mutt is eager to _really_ get out of the house, now that his leg has healed."

"Yessss!" I cried, jumping out of my chair and putting my arms around my husband. When he looked at me strangely, I shook my head. "Can't a woman be excited to go on a trip?" I winked. "Let's leave tomorrow. Does that sound good?"

"I have to teach…" Indiana said. I couldn't believe he was still teaching at the college after all these years.

"This can't wait, Indiana," I rolled my eyes. "The letter itself is two weeks old," I pointed towards the date. "Who knows what's happened since then. Plus," I added, thinking about the men in black at the door who had wanted to take the letter from me, "I think that this might be bigger than the letter suggests. There were two strange men at the door today, and they were demanding that I give the letter back to them. Someone doesn't want you to rescue Sallah," I finished suspiciously. Had those two Arabs really tracked the letter all the way from Egypt just so Indiana couldn't read it? It was the best guess I had.

He sighed. "Okay, you have a point. If there are strange people trying to make sure we don't read this, then something is definitely wrong. We'll leave first thing after school tomorrow. Does that make you happy?"

"Very much so!" I squealed like a little schoolgirl, grinning. "We should go tell Madie and Mutt right now. Speaking of them, where are they?"

"Well, they're not outside, since it's raining…" Indiana mused. "I think they're in Mutt's bedroom." We both stopped moving and listened intently for a sound that I must admit we both feared: the sound of the bed creaking and the blankets being jostled around.

"Do you think they're actually…?" I said when that sound ran through the house loud and clear. "You know… do you think they're… _doing the do_?"

And just like any good parents would, we took no moment's hesitation in bounding up the stairs and bursting into Mutt's room without knocking.

When I entered, Madie shrieked in surprise and fell off the bed, into a pile of Mutt's dirty laundry. I noted that they were both still wearing clothes, at least, although Mutt had removed his leather jacket and it was now in the pile of laundry Madison was sitting in. My son, too, fell off the bed, laughing so hard he could barely stand up straight.

At first glance, you would have never thought Madie and Mutt would be dating. They looked like complete opposites: Madie was the most popular girl in town, and she was a preppy, while Mutt, who was a greaser, was also an outsider. Madison wore poodle skirts; Mutt drove motorcycles. Madie put her sleek brown curls in a high ponytail; Mutt put grease in his hair. But although they were completely different on the outside, they were surprisingly similar on the inside – and that was probably one of the reasons why they had fallen in love.

"What were you two doing up here?" Indiana asked suspiciously.

"Jumping on the bed," Madie grinned, wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes. That would explain the creaking bed.

"What's up, old man? You seem worried about something," Mutt said, sitting down beside Madie on his Tower of Laundry. He slung his arm over her shoulders, and I couldn't help but remark how comfortable they were with each other. And they didn't even have to go out to a club (or whatever young people did nowadays) to have fun – as we had proved about three seconds ago, they were perfectly content by being immature and jumping on the bed.

"Well," Indiana started, grinning, "I have some big news that'll make you both very, very happy."

"What's that?" Madie asked, her eyes all wide and innocent.

I grinned at the two of them: they had absolutely no idea what they were getting into. "We're going on another adventure!"

XxXxX

**Monday, December 9****th****, 1957**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

"Mom," I said softly, eating my bowl of cereal, "I need to tell you something."

"What's that, Madison?"

I grimaced at the use of my real name. "Please don't call me that."

"What else am I supposed to call you?"

"Madie."

"That's a horrible name."

"I like that name."

"You know, if you don't like the name Madison, you could always just go by your middle name..."

"_Mom_, we're getting off track here!"

My mother and I both sighed in unison. Our relationship had been rather...strained... ever since I started dating Mutt. She had always been criticizing him and throwing rather harmful insults, and I had been quick to defend my greaser, which only infuriated her. She was upset that I was growing up and growing distant from her, and she didn't want me to date 'that dangerous boy with the motorcycle.' She thought all women should go out with respectable boys who were on the football team. Ha. Well, they weren't all respectable – one of my previous preppy boyfriends had worked for Soviets, and another one of them had run Mutt over with a car, almost killing him. My choices in men were great, weren't they?

"What is it that you need to tell me?" she asked, washing the dishes. It was Monday morning, and I was hastily eating a bowl of cereal before college classes, while she was busy cleaning. I wanted to get to school as soon as possible today, because the sooner I was there, the sooner I could see Mutt, and the sooner the adventure could start.

I was excited beyond belief about going to Egypt this afternoon with the Joneses. Marion and Indy had explained about the letter from their friend Sallah, and they had explained that he had gone missing. It wouldn't be a supernatural adventure like the search for Pandora's Box, but that was just fine, since Indiana thought we would be dealing with kidnappers. Besides, the supernatural freaked me out.

"Um, well," I started, thinking about the cover story Indiana had given me so my parents wouldn't _really_ know I was going to Cairo, Egypt. "I won this essay contest at school, and, uh, as a prize, Ind – I mean, Dr. Jones is taking me on a small archaeological dig in, uh, New York." Okay, worst story ever. They didn't have digs in New York City, did they? "I mean, he's taking me to an all-inclusive exhibit of, um, Egyptian artifacts." That made more sense.

"I never heard of an essay contest," my father suddenly said, walking into the room. Shit. I had hoped I could get away without talking to him, since he worked at the same college as Indiana.

"It was an in-class contest," I said smoothly, hoping my father was dumb enough to fall for it.

Apparently he was. "Well then, congratulations, Madison. I know how much you love history and archaeology, and I hope that this trip will be informative. Are you going with any friends?"

I shook my head. "I was the only one who won; it'll just be me and Dr. Jones."

My father frowned. "I don't really like that man. He's too rash and impetuous; he makes things up as he goes along and never thinks things through properly. Plus, I hear he's rather violent."

"Like father, like son," my mother murmured from where she was standing at the sink, referring to Mutt. I stuck my tongue out at her behind her back.

"All the same," my dad finished up, "he is trustworthy. I say you can go. Mary?" he looked towards my mother, hoping for an answer from her.

"Will that greaser be coming along?"

I sighed. It seemed the only thing my mother talked about was Mutt and how bad he was for me. "He's got a name. And no." That was a big fat lie.

"Alright. I give you my permission to go on this... field trip, or whatever. How long will you be gone for?" my mother said.

"Uh," I suddenly stuttered. No one had ever told me how long I would be absent. "How about... a week? Or two?"

"You don't know how long you're going to be away? This is one unorganized trip," Dad said, looking suspicious, but I was saved by the bell – er, the clock.

"Shoot, I only have ten minutes left until school starts, and I need to pack!" I said, scrambling out of my chair. "We're leaving straight from school," I explained when my parents gave me strange looks – and then I ran up the staircase, leaving them alone.

XxXxX

"Have fun on your trip, Madison!" Mom called, rolling down the car window. She had driven me to school, since it was pouring rain and I had a lot of gear to bring. Waving goodbye, I ran up the steps to Marshall College, holding my bag above my head to keep the rain away from my limp brown curls. I had used to always have my hair in a high ponytail, but ever since I met the Joneses, I had gone more natural and let it go lose. A lot of things had changed about me since I met them, inside and out. The most important, though, was that I was no longer a brain-dead preppy, and I didn't care about my appearance anymore. I was my own person, and I did what I wanted, no matter what other people thought.

I was walking through the archway in front of the school doors when suddenly an arm snaked its way around my waist and pulled me back. I screamed, thinking it was a Russian (ever since my Pandora adventure, I had been a bit paranoid about that sort of stuff), but when the person turned me towards them, I smiled. It was just Mutt, hiding and waiting to give me a quick kiss on the lips.

Struggling against his grip playfully, I laughed. "We're getting all wet. Please, can we just go inside?" Honestly though, it was too late for that. We were already soaked to the bone, since we were still standing in the rain.

"Aw, don't you like the rain, doll?" Mutt pretended to be sad.

"No. And I know that you only like it because it makes my clothing cling to my body rather suggestively," I raised an eyebrow, glad I was wearing an oversized college sweatshirt to hide my curves from his prying eyes. Sure, Mutt was my boyfriend, but I wasn't really ready for him to be staring at my boobs yet.

"I don't _always _do that, baby," he winked. I rolled my eyes, and when I did, I caught a glimpse of two men standing behind a 'No Parking' sign. One was impossibly tall and the other was short, and they were wearing all black. I couldn't see their faces through the rain, though.

"Uh, Mutt?" I said, suddenly serious. "Do you think those two men... are watching us? And do you think they're the same ones that tried to take the letter from Marion yesterday?"

My greaser's body suddenly stiffened, and he involuntarily gripped me harder. It was Mutt's second nature to do that; whenever he thought danger was nearby, he would automatically go into 'protective mode.' Most times I found it funny (because he was usually 'protecting' me from preppies or my parents), but right now I was glad for it.

"Inside. Now," Mutt grumbled, tight-lipped. We moved towards the doors, and to my horror, the two men followed us. My greaser flung open the college doors, pushing me inside where it was warm and where it wasn't raining. But even as he came through after me, the two men in black suits followed suit.

"What class do I have right now?" Mutt asked me, watching over his shoulder.

"Okay, I know you don't like school and all, and you're only here because Indiana makes you come, but that doesn't mean you have to rely on me for your timetable. One day, I'm not going to be here, and you're going to have to figure out what class you have _by yourself-_"

"Never mind, we're going to Dad's classroom," he said as the two men walked into the college, their eyes set on our direction. "Indiana will know what to do."

"W-well, it's okay, since we have archaeology with him a-anyways right now..." I stuttered as I saw the men's faces clearly for the first time – they were Arabian, just like the men who had tried to steal Marion's letter from Sallah!

Mutt and I rushed down the corridors hurriedly, ducking through random classroom doorways and around groups of students as the two men continued to pursue us. I was really getting creeped out now – I mean, how did they even know we were the right people, and not just some random nineteen-year-olds?

We stumbled into Indiana's classroom not a moment too soon. The Arabs were hot on our heels, about to grab our arms as we slammed the door on them and ran over to Indy, where he was preparing to start teaching for the day.

Everyone who was sitting down in the classroom already was staring at us, but I ignored them. I could see the shadows of the Arabs outside of the door as I grasped Mutt's arm in a vice-like grip.

"I don't think we need to go to Cairo to start our adventure," my greaser said to a wide-eyed and surprised Indiana, "because the adventure seems to have already found us."


	2. How I Roll

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 2: _How I Roll_

_(I wanna go)/down town where my posse's at/(because I got) nine lives like a kitty cat/(you wanna roll, that's how I roll)_

XxXxX

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

Indiana glanced towards the door, worry etched across his face. He seemed to understand what we were talking about rather easily as a knock sounded at the door. After one final glance around the room, Indy bent down, picked up a briefcase and shoved a bunch of papers in it.

"Henry, would you please open the window for me?" he grunted, speaking to Mutt.

"I told you not to-"

"Now's not the time!" my college professor snapped, as the knocking at the door became more persistent. Indy grabbed a couple more things off his desk and then jumped over his chair, taking off his glasses and slipping them in his pocket.

"Dr. Jones, there's someone at the door! Do you want me to get it?" one student asked, standing up in his seat.

"No, no, leave it! Nobody touch the door!" Indiana shouted, yanking open the window to the classroom. After taking one look outside in the pouring rain, he shrugged and slid through the window, jumping down onto the wet grass. Thank God his classroom was on the first floor.

There was a disruption among the students when their professor randomly decided to jump out of the window; quite a few kids got out of their seats and rushed over, trying to see what had happened. Mutt pushed me out after Indiana, though, before I could hear anything that students were saying. Mutt followed after right away, and once we were all on our feet, we took off across the college campus.

Slipping on the muddy grass, I ran up beside Indiana. "Where're we going?" I asked, trying to shield the rain from my face.

"If my theory is correct, those men don't want us to go and rescue Sallah," Indy started, "so I say that it's all the more reason we find him as soon as possible. I think we should go to the airport right now and hop on the next available flight, because if those two Arabians outside of my door really were chasing you, then we could all be in danger."

"So... we're going to the airport?"

"No. I'm going to pick up Marion; you and Junior are going to hang low at a diner until I come and pick you up with all my stuff. Got it?"

"Why are we going to a diner?" Mutt asked, ignoring the nickname.

"Because if those two people who were following you somehow realize we got out of the college, the first place they'll come to look for us will probably be my house. It's safest if you two stay out of the way. We don't know what those men are capable of."

"But what if they capture you, or something?" I asked.

Indy grunted. "I doubt that will happen. Now stop arguing and just do as I say. I'll meet you at Arnie's Diner in... fifteen minutes. Don't do anything stupid!"

XxXxX

Arnie's Diner was the most popular hang-out spot for college kids and greasers – and that meant we blended in perfectly. It may have still been the morning, but the place was packed. Greasers who didn't go to school hung out here when they were bored, and some of the lettermen who didn't have classes at the moment were here, just chilling. I was glad for the extra cover.

I loved Arnie's. It was my favourite place to come for a burger, and it was where I hung out when I wasn't at the Jones house, or when I wasn't down by the railroad tracks with Mutt, fooling around. Sometimes we walked around town, but I never hung out at my house anymore, mostly because of my over-controlling parents.

I sat down at a booth nestled in the corner right next to the window and the wall. On the walls were black-and-white photographs of random people who I didn't know and newspaper clippings. A waitress came over and I ordered a malted milkshake, which was my personal favourite, while Mutt just asked for a hamburger. We stared out the window in silence at the pouring rain, zoning out and getting lost in our thoughts.

A couple minutes after I had gotten my milkshake, someone slid into the seat beside me in the booth. I looked up to see one of my old preppy friends Angie smiling at me.

"What's up, Madison?" she asked. "I haven't talked to you in a month or two!"

I rolled my eyes. "Actually, Angie, it's been three days."

She shrugged indifferently, always the Happy-Go-Lucky person. Unlike some of my other friends, she had continued to hang out with me, even though I was now involved with a greaser. In reality, a lot of my preppy friends had kept in touch – they didn't really care about Mutt as much as I thought they would. As a matter of fact, Angie and my greaser got along wonderfully, and they were great friends.

"Why aren't you in class?" I asked her. "Don't you have Dr. Jones's archaeology right now...?" I trailed off, realizing what I was saying.

She frowned. "Yeah, well, after you two and our teacher decided to jump out the window, everyone sort of ditched. So I kind of have a free period right now." I sighed, nodding in comprehension.

"What's up, Sammy?" Angie said to Mutt, grinning. She had called him that ever since the day they first met, because she said he looked more like a 'Sam' than he looked like a Mutt. In return, he called the blonde paper-shaker 'Stacey.'

"Nothing much, doll. What about you? Has Arnie's diner finally hired you as a waitress yet?" he asked. Angie was applying for a job at the diner, and she had been trying to find part-time work for a long time.

"No," she grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning.

Mutt took a huge bite out of his burger and swallowed before responding. "Well, you could always come and work at the motorcycle shop with me, love."

Rolling her eyes, she responded in a bit of an annoyed tone. "How many times must I tell you, Sam? That's no sort of work for a lady," she smoothed her skirt down with her hands.

"Madie's come down to the shop with me sometimes," he retorted, his mouth full.

"Yeah, but I haven't _worked_. I've just... overseen what you're doing," I cut in.

"Don't be so modest, babe. You helped me fix _my_ bike."

"That doesn't count. Besides, we weren't really fixing your motorbike," I added, "because it was completely destroyed in the crash caused by Chase. We were just modifying your new one so that it was as good as the old motorcycle."

"All the same," Angie interrupted loudly, "I am not working down at the shop with you. Madie can because she's an exception; she's your girlfriend." At this, Mutt and I grinned cheekily at each other.

"Hey, uh..." Angie continued, breaking the connection as we turned to look at her, "do you guys know some Arabian men in black suits? Because when I exited the classroom, there were two guys like that asking about you..."

I stiffened. "What did you say?"

"I told them... you had jumped out the window?" she said slowly, her words forming a question because she knew she was in trouble now. I looked up in worry, suddenly surveying the diner around us.

"Then what did they do?" Mutt asked, all traces of humour gone from his face.

"They pushed their way into the class and then followed you?" her words formed a guilty question again, as if she wasn't sure about what she was saying. God damn that brain-dead preppy. I stood up in my seat, glancing at people's heads. If they hadn't followed us to the diner, then they must have followed Indiana back to his place!

Mutt and I slid out of the booth, leaving Angie there, sitting in worry. We glanced around the room carefully, looking for any signs that we had been followed. My greaser made his way over to the other side of Arnie's Diner, where we couldn't see around the counter, to look over there. I went over to the jukebox, which was blasting Elvis songs, so I could get a better view of the place.

I was just starting to think that maybe, just maybe, everything was in order here and they had followed Indiana when I felt the cold and terrifyingly familiar barrel of a gun being pressed into my back.

"Don't scream; just do as we say and you won't get hurt," a deep voice with a strong Arabian accent whispered in my ear. I saw enough to know that it was the shorter of the two men who had been chasing us, and he was covering the gun with his jacket so that people passing by couldn't see that he was threatening me. I glanced around for help – but the only thing I could find that was even close to salvation was a malted milkshake.

It would have to do.

Reaching out a grabbing it before the man saw what I was doing, I spun around and smashed it over his head, glass and chocolate ice cream shattering everywhere. Hearing a shot go off, I looked down, thinking I had been hit by a bullet – but no, the shot had hit the lamp above my head, and the light had gone out while the sound of gunfire reverberated throughout the now-silent diner.

If Mutt hadn't figured out there were bad guys here yet, he certainly would have now.

Still, it didn't get me anywhere. The man whipped me around again, putting his hand over my mouth so I couldn't scream, and pointed the pistol at the nearby lettermen in the diner, warning them to back off. Angie was sitting in our booth still, looking ready to pass out. She knew she had done this, and she felt bad – well, good riddance. I was about to be killed.

The people around me glanced at the gun fearfully, and they didn't make any moves to help. Instead, the stupid Joe College kids and their girlfriends just put their hands in the air and glanced at me in pity as the Arabian man holding me hostage shouted out something in whatever his native language was. The impossibly tall Arabian appeared around the counter, holding up a gun of his own.

Suddenly, a few girls shrieked as a crushing weight fell on top of me and the short Arab, and I heard the sound of wood splintering. I didn't know what was pinning me to the floor until Mutt's hand grabbed mine and he pulled me to my feet, and we ran over to the other side of the diner. My greaser had jumped down from the counter on top of my captor and me, brandishing a wooden chair as a weapon, which he had used to knock the Arab out cold.

I leaped over the counter so I could duck and hide behind it, Mutt (who had his switchblade in his hand) right on my coattails as the diner broke out in a riot. People tried the wrestle the guns out of the men's hands, and fights started everywhere: not just fights with intruders, but fights with each other as well. I spotted Angie screaming and running out the door as the waitress standing nearby us narrowly avoided being hit by a flying beer bottle. "Second riot in six months!" she exclaimed, to which Mutt snickered. I would have to ask him about that later.

The waitress then spotted us crouching beneath the counter, huddled up and hiding. She must have recognized me as the girl who had been held hostage, because she pulled us out from under, pointing towards the back of the diner. "There's a door that way from which you can escape. Go now!"

Thanking her briefly, we sprinted for the back of Arnie's Diner, sliding around on the polished floor and skidding into the kitchen. There were cooks in there looking for a place to take cover, but we ignored them as I yanked open a steel door that emerged into a back alley littered with garbage. Mutt and I ran out into the street, where the fight was attracting policemen like bees to a hive of honey. "C'mon, Indiana, where are you... it's been more than fifteen minutes..." I muttered to myself, glancing around for his car.

We were now standing in the pouring rain again, my hair sticking to my face as I sighed. Hopefully, when we got to Egypt, it would be sunny all the time there...

_Yes. _I spotted Indy's car turning the corner, slowing down when the driver, who was Marion, spotted the chaos in the diner. Mutt and I simply opened the car doors to the backseat and crawled in, scaring her.

"What the- where did you guys- what's- what did you _do_?" she glanced pointedly at Arnie's Diner.

"Just step on it, Mom," Mutt said, to which Indiana, who was sitting in the passenger seat, laughed. And then we were off.

XxXxX

I guess Egypt was normally sweltering hot, but I wouldn't know. We arrived there at 5:30 in the morning.

After the uneventful trip to the airport, Indiana (who seemed to have a lot of influence with the travel officials) got us onto the 10:30 non-stop flight to Cairo. The plane ride was boring, but in a good way – no one tried to kill us, at least. Although, after eleven and a half hours of sitting motionless, you do sort of wish for action of some kind.

We took a taxi from the airport to Cairo's Old Quarter, where Indiana said that his friend Sallah lived. He spoke highly of Sallah, telling us that he was the best excavator in Egypt, and saying that they both shared a fondness for archaeology. Apparently, he was extremely optimistic and a friend to everyone. In addition, he told us that Sallah was well-known in Cairo, and he was a noted guide and project manager (for archaeological excavations, of course). Marion, too, seemed to be good friends with Sallah, although they had not spoken in a couple decades.

"But I must warn you," Indy added, laughing, "after parenthood and archaeology, his passion is opera. He'll start singing for no reason at random times; his voice used to fill the bazaars in Egypt. Until now, I guess, since he's missing," he finished, frowning.

We finally arrived at their home in the Old Quarter, and after paying the taxi-man, we climbed down a small set of about five stairs to a little door with an overhang. Marion felt bad about knocking on the door at five-thirty in the morning, but we didn't really have a choice.

After banging on the door, we heard shouting coming from inside the house. "It's Fayah," Indy translated, since whoever was speaking was saying it in Arabic, "and she's telling her daughter Jasmine to go back to bed... Jasmine says she wants to know if it's Sallah at the door..."

Suddenly, the wooden door was flung open violently, and we were faced head-on by a short woman with dark greying brown hair and tanned skin. She peered at us, trying to figure out who we were – when she must have recognized Marion.

The woman, who I gathered to be Sallah's wife Fayah, was speechless. "You – you came... It has been two weeks!" she managed to get out, stuttering when she saw Indiana's face. After another moment or two of silence, she stepped aside. "Come in, come in!"

We walked into the el-Kahir residence, standing awkwardly in their living room. It was tastefully decorated with rich reds and browns, and carpets covered the walls to try and make the place a bit happier. Dark wooden furniture was scattered throughout the room; Fayah motioned for us to sit down on the couches, and I squished myself right up beside Mutt. My first trip to Europe a couple months ago had been strange enough, but now I was in an entirely different continent with customs that were strange and foreign to me. England, France and Greece were a lot more like the States than Egypt was, that was for certain. I stayed close to Mutt because I didn't exactly feel comfortable in this strange land.

There were priceless artifacts littered around the room; artifacts that Indiana was now studying. Everything seemed to be expensive, while at the same time looking like it was bought in a random bazaar – I guess what I mean to say is, everything was antique. I was examining a lamp in the shape of an elephant when Fayah started bustling around in the kitchen in the next room over, yelling things out at us.

"Would you like some tea? Biscuits? Crackers? Fruit?" she called, and I was surprised at how good her English was.

"We're fine, thank you," Marion responded, but I knew she was hungry. We were all starving.

Luckily, Mutt wasn't quite as modest as his mother. "Can I have a bowl of cereal or something? I'm famished," he said, and his mother glared. Suddenly, Fayah poked her head around the corner to stare at Mutt and me.

"Who are you?" she asked, clearly confused.

Indy sighed, finally sitting down on a red cushion. "Why don't you come join us, Fayah? I think we all have some explaining to do."

Sallah's wife came into the living room and sat down directly across from Mutt and me, giving us a weary look as the daughter that she had been yelling at before we entered the house came into the room. Jasmine, as Indy said she was called, looked to be about twenty-seven years old, and she had a round face and long, dark hair that reached her lower back. The younger woman looked almost exactly like her mother, I remarked as she sat beside Fayah.

"So... who's story first?" Marion shuffled in her seat uncomfortably.

"We may as well start," Indy sighed, running his hands through his hair. He then proceeded to tell Fayah and her daughter Jasmine about Mutt (they couldn't believe Indiana had a son), his marriage to Marion, and just what exactly I was doing there with them. Surprisingly, they took it all well.

"I would have expected nothing less of you," Fayah smiled, talking to Indy, who grinned sheepishly once his story was done. "It is quite all right that you have brought these two young people here to help me look for my husband; we are a very hospitable family and we do not mind taking care of others when they are helping us. It is always a pleasure to have you in our house," she nodded towards Marion and Indiana, who smiled gratefully.

"Now... can you tell us exactly what has happened with Sallah?" the suddenly-serious Indy asked, his brow creasing, when we were interrupted by three people. They were introduced to us as Abasi, Adofo and Moshti el-Kahir, three of Sallah's five sons. I wondered if I would ever be able to remember the names of his nine children; I had only met four so far, and it was hard enough!

"Indy?" Moshti, who looked to be a little bit older than thirty, said to Indiana. "Is it really you?"

"Moshti, my boy! I haven't seen you in decades! I haven't seen _any _of you in decades!" Indiana exclaimed, standing up and clapping the boy on the back. Marion hastily agreed, giving each of them a hug. "Last I saw you, you were saving me from Belloq when he had his people pull out guns on me!" The three Egyptian boys nodded, sitting down with 'Indy,' as they called him excessively. Finally, everyone turned their full attention to Sallah's wife.

Fayah ran her hands through her hair, and I understood that what she was about to say was going to be hard for her. Jasmine rubbed her mother's back reassuringly, trying to calm her down.

After a long pause, the elder woman started her story. ""It was just a normal November day when it started, I think. Sallah told me he was going on an archaeological hunt for some artifact, but I do not remember what it was. He did tell me the usual basics though - there are three things he tells me every time he goes on a trip like this: the first thing is that if he does not come back within three days, I am supposed to contact Indy. The second thing he said is that if government agents come to the house, tell them the truth - to a certain limit. The last thing is that if I have to contact Indy, I am supposed to tell him that there are clues in Sallah's bedroom about what he is looking for, and those clues will eventually lead to my husband," she looked pointedly at my college professor.

"So, on this particular day, he left after telling me these things. But after four days, he still had not returned, so I wrote a letter to Indiana - but only after sending it did I receive a letter a week or two later, saying that Indy no longer lived at the address I had sent the letter to. Because of this, I decided to go to the police, but I had no proof that something bad had happened to Sallah, so they turned me away and did not help.

"I called all nine of my children to see if they had any information on where their father was - all my kids have moved away by now, so it took a while to contact them. Once they discovered their father was missing, six of them flew out here to Cairo immediately to assist me in looking for their dad. That seemed to be the last option we had."

"Panya stayed home in England, where she lives now, to take care of her baby twins," Jasmine suddenly cut in when Indiana looked up, wondering why everyone hadn't returned to Egypt. "My brothers Ziyad and Hasani couldn't get away from work," she finished explaining, as I realized that this was possibly one of the closest-knit families I had ever met.

"Anyways," Fayah started again, "we searched for Sallah, but since no one knew where he had gone, it was in vain. Even after a search through his room we could find nothing. Hopefully you will be able to find something, Indy," she sighed. "Three weeks ago, Moshti, whose wife works with international relations, did an American-wide search of Indy, and he found you at the university. After contacting the dean and getting your address, we sent you a letter concerning Sallah's disappearance about two weeks ago. I cannot believe it has taken so long to finally reach you, though; other letters simply take a week to get there and to return here."

"We have reason to believe there were some… intentional delays," Marion said, thinking of the Arabian men in the black suits. "But the letter said something about sabotage and a secret organization…?"

"Ah, yes. Just before we contacted you, I returned home to find our house completely turned upside-down. Someone had broken in and searched the place; strangely enough, they didn't take anything. They must not have found what they were looking for," Fayah glanced at her feet solemnly. "After that incident, we cleaned up the entire house, except for mine and Sallah's bedroom. I have been sleeping on the couch ever since he went missing. If I hadn't been sleeping there tonight, I would not have heard you knock on my door."

"And this secret organization…" Marion prompted.

"Right. Well, my daughter Selma, who works for the government – she is here right now, actually, sleeping somewhere - she knows about an organization that seems to be attacking and pillaging archaeological sites. We have reason to believe that they were illegally rummaging through one of these sites when Sallah happened upon it."

"And this organization is filled with Arabs in black suits?" I mumbled under my breath, and although I didn't mean it, Jasmine heard me.

"Actually, yes," she said in surprise. "How do you know this?"

Mutt shrugged, pulling out his plastic comb and running it through his hair. "We had a little run-in with some men like that today. No biggie," he finished, and I rolled my eyes.

"What's this organization called?" Indy asked, sitting on the edge of his seat.

"The... what was it again?" Fayah asked Jasmine, who shrugged.

"Sons of..."

"Talib. Sons of Talib," Moshti spoke up. "Talib is an Arabic name that means 'knowledge-seeker,' but I think these people are looking for knowledge so they can use it in the wrong way."

"We've had lots of experience with people who want to use power and knowledge for bad purposes," Indy grumbled, picking his hat off his head and twirling it around in his hands.

Marion yawned suddenly, earning the attention of everyone. "Fayah, I'm so sorry to interrupt your night's sleep and invade your home," she said, yawning again as the Egyptian woman laughed.

"I can see that you are just as tired as us." We all nodded vigorously, glad to finally admit it.

"How about I make you all quick, temporary beds on the floor, and you take a nap? It is late where you come from, and you need to start getting used to the time change," she said. "I will make you beds right now. Please, if you need anything, just ask." Everyone smiled at the kind woman as she bustled around the house, pulling out blankets and pillows and laying them upon the floor. "Tomorrow, I will give you real beds."

"It's quite alright," Indiana said, shrugging out of his jacket and lowering himself to the floor. "Please, Fayah - get some sleep, and we will gladly follow." And with that, we all passed out on the floor as the Egyptian darkness swallowed up all of our dreams.

XxXxX

I woke up at noon, Cairo time. Indiana and Marion were already awake, bustling around in the kitchen and helping Fayah and her children prepare a large meal. Mutt was still on the floor beside me, snoring, and I giggled a bit, before reaching out and shaking his shoulder.

"Wake up, Henry," I teased, and he jolted to life with a start, catching my hand in his rough one. He grinned at me sleepily, before clonking his head back down onto his makeshift pillow on the floor.

"We are where?" he slurred, the words hardly making any sense.

"Sallah el-Kahir's house in Egypt, remember?" I mumbled, snuggling a bit closer to him. He wrapped his leather-clad arm around me, pulling me into his embrace, while I rested my head against his chest. My greaser suddenly shot straight up in his seat, and his hands flew to his head.

"My hair!" he cried out in astonishment. He was fully awake now, and he had ruined the possible romantic moment we could have had. Rolling my eyes, I stood up and stretched and he ran around the house, looking for his luggage with his hair products in it.

"Good morning, Madie," Marion said as I strolled into the kitchen. "How was your sleep?"

I shrugged. "It was fine. It's going to take a long time to get used to the time change, though. Where's Indiana?"

"He is searching through the bedroom of Sallah," Fayah stepped in. "He wants to know if there really is a clue as to where my husband may be. Would you like some breakfast, Madi?" she said, and her English words were clipped; she said my name with a hard D.

"That would be wonderful, thank you!" I responded, and she held out a plate of food. I was politely reached for one of the freshly-baked cinnamon rolls when Mutt (who had finished perfecting his hair) breezed in and grabbed about five off the plate. Fayah, Marion and I all glared at him, so he sheepishly put them back after smuggling one into his pocket for later.

Walking into the room that I had been told was Sallah's, I saw Indiana rummaging through it. The place was chaotic; as Fayah had said, they hadn't cleaned it up yet, and furniture lay on its sides or broken. Papers were scattered across the floor, along with some of the priceless artifact that I guessed Sallah had found. Indiana looked positively dismayed at all the debris and archaeological finds gone to waste, along with the fact that Sallah's disappearance was taking its toll on him. I stood silently behind my college professor, looking around for something that might be a clue – but really, when everything you look at is an antique that he could be searching for, how are you supposed to find the proper thing?

Indy bent down, searching through a large pile of idols and dolls. In turn, I glanced through a stack of paintings and maps. The only thing that really caught my eye was a painting of three cats: one was orange, one was black, and the last was white. Assuming they were Sallah's cats, I put the picture and the frame that it was in down on the bed.

We started searching through the debris again as Fayah joined us, standing in the doorway with tears in her eyes. I really felt bad for her; it seemed her husband had been missing for about a month without a trace. This fact only made me want to find Marion and Indy's elusive Egyptian friend even more, although I honestly had no idea who he really was. Simply helping Fayah and her nine children was good enough a reason for me, though.

A loud shuffling was suddenly heard from the other side of the room. Glancing over, I saw Indiana trying to bust open a locked drawer in a bedside table that had been turned on its side.

"You said that they didn't take anything, right, Fayah? Because they didn't find what they were looking for?" Indiana said, turning around to face the woman in the doorway. She nodded her head, wiping her eyes.

"Well, are there any places in this house where Sallah keeps things under lock and key; a place where he puts all his important stuff?"

"That drawer," she pointed towards the storage place Indiana was still rattling, "is the only place in the house that is locked. You are right; he keeps all the important stuff in there."

"Well, the bad guys obviously didn't get into that drawer, because it's still sealed shut. Do you know where the key is?" I asked, catching on to the fact that Indy thought the 'clue' was in the drawer.

Unfortunately, Fayah shook her head. "He keeps it on him at all times."

Indy sighed. "Alright then. I don't want to do this, but..." he pulled out his pistol and shot the lock on the drawer, a loud bang echoing throughout the house. Fayah screamed a little, covering her ears, but otherwise she didn't move.

The drawer was now easy to open, and Indiana tugged on it forcefully after he put his gun away. I watched as he shuffled through the only things in there: passports, a stack of money – and a strange circular golden object with an off-centre jewel of some sort in the middle. The edges of the object were adorned in some sort of ancient writing on both sides; Indiana held it up to the light, turning it over in his hands.

"Goddamn..." he said slowly under his breath, worry etched into his face. "Marion! Get over here right now!" he shouted suddenly, and the anger and urgency in his tone scared me.

Indy's wife scurried into the room, stepping over things in her haste. "What is it? What did you find?" she mumbled, tearing the object out of her husband's hands. When she saw it, her expression went completely blank. "Shit."

"What is it?" Fayah asked, making her way into the room as Mutt, too, walked in to see what all the commotion was about.

"It's the headpiece to the Staff of Ra," Indy grumbled. "Do you think this is the 'clue' Sallah had mentioned?" Answering his own question, he said "it had to be. Nothing else important was in that locked drawer."

"So... what exactly is this hunk of junk?" Mutt asked, picking it out of his mother's hands, but she snatched it back.

"It's something my father found. He gave it to me, and I gave it to Indiana back it 1936; we used it to find the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant," she explained. "You don't think Sallah is looking for the Ark again, or that he thinks there's something more that we need to look into down in the final resting place of the Ark? Because I really, really don't want to get involved with stuff like this again..."

"My best guess," Indiana said in his deep voice, "is that Sallah either returned to the map room because he had a lead on some other object that has to do with this headpiece, or that he actually returned to the Well of Souls itself, where the Ark was housed before we found it." Marion sighed, as I looked between the two of them in confusion. What was going on?

"I'm afraid we're going to have to return to one of these places," Indy squinted, looking at the headpiece again. "This was probably what the men who invaded this home were looking for. So... I would say we should return to the map room, but this headpiece only points to one place. Sallah must have gone to the Well of Souls."

Marion groaned. "Um, Indiana?" I asked, confused. "Can you explain... a little better?"

"There's no time," he said. "We're leaving for the Well right now; I'll explain on the way. Fayah, do you want to come with us?" he turned towards Sallah's wife. She shook her head.

"No. I will stay and clean Sallah's room; there may be more clues as to his whereabouts that can only be unearthed when this place is cleaned up," she responded softly.

"Alright then. Everyone, grab what you need, but make it the bare minimum. We're going to the Well of Souls – the last known resting place of the Ark of the Covenant."

XxXxX

**A/N:** This was not my best chapter; I'll give you that. The story _will_ get better; I promise. I just needed to get a few things out of the way here, and set up some stuff that will become more important later.

Song credits for this chapter go to Britney Spears, and I own nothing except my own ideas and my own OCs. I don't own Indiana Jones or anything you may recognize.

So... did you like it? Hate it? I would love to hear what works and what doesn't, so hit that little button at the end and be honest (but please be nice)! Thanks! :)

Special thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far – I was a bit overwhelmed by the response; it's already much more than my first story! Review credits go to: _x XRoweenaJAugustineX x, Druid Archer, Georgina, Lydily, ParfaitFille, Melody, misslaurajones, merlincrazy, ks90, bleh, _and _tilted-sun_! Your reviews always make me smile, and encourage me to keep writing! Plus, thank you to everyone who has added this story to their 'favourites' list and their 'alert' list; even though some of you may be too shy to review, you still encourage me to keep writing! :)

Extra-huge-gigantic thanks to the people who have followed me from the first story... over to this one!

Review responses to:  
><em>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x: <em>You've got that right ;)  
><em>Druid Archer: <em>Glad to know you like sequels!  
><em>Georgina:<em> It's quite alright; just review when you can! I love to hear from my readers!  
><em>Lydily<em>: Yeah, I just kind of wanted to get it over with. Sorry (heehee).  
><em>ParfaitFille: <em>No problem, and thanks for the support!  
><em>Melody: <em>It was because I wanted to add a link in the other story to this one, and to do so I would have to put this up first... but, alas, it didn't work. Anyways, thanks for continuing to read!  
><em>misslaurajones: <em>Hope this'll make you happy!  
><em>merlincrazy: <em>You've been my first reviewer from the start: thank you so much! And I agree – I love Sallah and I just had to put him in a story :P  
><em>ks90:<em> Thank you so much! I love to hear from you ;)  
><em>bleh:<em> Thanks!  
><em>tilted-sun:<em> I know that a lot of fans don't like Mutt... but I sure as hell do! Glad to know you agree. Thanks so much for reading; and I'm relieved that you (eventually) liked Madie. It's nice to hear from a new reviewer!

I'm going to shut up now. Hopefully you all understood the part where Indy found the headpiece to the Staff of Ra...? I'll explain more in the next update, which may not be until the weekend, I think. Sorry! But anyways, thank you all so much! :) I look forward to hearing from everyone!

On my profile page are pictures of who I think might portray Madie if this was a movie... plus, there are some hints (but no real spoilers) as to what might happen in the rest of the story! You know you want to go look... ;)

-Alexa Blaze :P


	3. Jericho

**Indiana Jones and the Key of Pandora**

Chapter 3: _Jericho_

_Hop the fast train out of town/downside up and upside down/going fast is going slow/what could've been, we'll never know_

XxXxX

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

It was a mad rush to grab all our stuff and get dressed – Indiana practically gave us only ten seconds before he walked out the door. If that man didn't have to wait around, then he _wouldn't_ wait around.

I changed into a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and an off-white blazer in record time, before running out the door. I didn't have anything else to bring on our little expedition; I had packed light, and besides, everything that I had brought was just clothing. I wasn't going to lug an entire suitcase over to the Well of Souls, or wherever we were going. Anyways, we were planning on returning to Fayah and Sallah's place afterwards.

In the meantime, Indiana had gone and contacted Sallah's brother-in-law Omar, who owned a car garage just down the street in Cairo. He gladly loaned us a truck, saying that if we needed anything, we should come straight to him – he would do anything to help find his brother-in-law, and besides, he was rather fond of Indy.

So Marion, Mutt, Indy and I all got into the truck and bid farewell to Fayah and her children, and they wished us luck. As we drove down the twisting and busy streets of Cairo, Egypt, Indiana gave me a little background on the Well of Souls, and the object that he had found.

"Marion's father Abner," he started, "found the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. He passed it to Marion, who gave it to me in 1936, when we came here to Cairo to find to Ark of the Covenant – actually, that was one of my greatest finds ever. Anyway, when we were here, there were Nazis looking for the Ark as well. They found the map room, which was an underground room with a, well, how do you explain it? A 3D map of the city of Tanis in it. When used properly, the headpiece of the Staff of Ra would pinpoint the exact location of the Ark. The Nazis thought they had used the map room properly to find the Ark, so they set up a huge dig site, but I later discovered that they were digging in the wrong place. Sallah and I found the real Well of Souls - and along with that, the Ark of the Covenant."

"So you think that Sallah's missing again because of a new development with the Ark, or something?" I asked, as the truck we were in ripped around a corner and sped out onto open road.

"That's the only lead we've got. So we're returning to the Well of Souls-" (Marion groaned at this) "-to try and find whatever it was Sallah was probably looking for." I nodded, before Indy added one last thing to his explanation: "By the way, we're going to Tanis. It's an ancient city near Cairo, where the Nazis had their giant archaeological dig all those years ago."

The rest of the car ride passed in silence, and I was staring out the window the entire time - well, if you didn't count the times I wasn't looking at Mutt. He had always been on my mind recently, and I couldn't stop thinking about him. Just being near the greaser gave me butterflies in my stomach. At one point during the ride, he caught me glancing over at him, and he grinned, lacing his fingers through mine and holding my hand. Whenever I looked in Mutt's eyes, I always felt so weak. I just couldn't look away, no matter how hard I tried. I was in love, alright? Even when I simply touched his skin, I thought I could feel sparks between our skin.

After a while of driving, we arrived in the ancient city of Tanis. It was a completely sand- and wind-swept place, with ancient stones and ruins peeking out of the barren land here and there. It may have obviously been a popular destination for archaeologists, but at the moment, it was deserted - and it looked like it had been that way for a long time.

Indy drove the truck off-road, circling around a stretch of particularly empty sand, before he abruptly stopped the van and hopped out. Everyone else followed right away, and we stood beside him as he surveyed the landscape.

"Isn't this... the place where the Flying Wing was? You know, the airship that blew up?" Marion asked, recognition trickling into her voice. Indiana nodded his head, and I decided not to say anything and interfere. They were having one of those moments where they remembered an adventure from when they were younger – a moment that I would probably never understand, or even try to. It wasn't my place to barge in.

"There," Indiana said, pointing towards an elevated hill in the landscape. "I'm pretty sure that's where we made our escape from the Well of Souls. We'll go through there, because the Nazis covered up the original entrance slab, and it would take a long time to dig it up again, let alone find it." He grabbed two shovels and a can of kerosene from the car, passing the kerosene to Marion. I didn't even bother to ask what it was for as we started the short trek across the empty field, towards a mound of sand that Indiana kept his eyes firmly on.

There was no wind, but it wasn't too hot out, which surprised me considering that it was Egypt and we were in the middle of the desert. I had to guess that it was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and although the sun was beating relentlessly on our backs, it wasn't uncomfortably warm. I will admit that I was glad there was no wind, though; if there had been, the sand would have been whipped into our eyes and blinded us. I looked behind us to the actual city of Tanis; we were standing just outside the boundaries, where there was nothing but dry landscape.

We made it to the mound where Indy had pointed, but it was completely covered in sand. "After years of neglect, wind must have covered the entrance back up," he explained. "Sand has buried it again."

"So... what do we do? Dig it back up?" Marion asked, and Indiana gave her his well-known half-smile.

"Pretty much. I brought shovels, which were in the back of the van," he said, throwing one at Mutt. "Dig, boy."

Mutt stuck his tongue out at his father, but started digging through the sand anyways. Marion and I stood off to the side, watching. I offered to give the men a break at one point and do some of the digging myself, but Mutt had a little sissy fit about how I wasn't cut out for this sort of work, how it would be 'degrading his manliness' (and that he could do it all himself), and how the men should be taking care of the girls – I rolled my eyes when he kept going on about it until Marion shut him up by grabbing his shovel out of his hand and hitting him over the head. You've just gotta love this family.

We stood there for a good twenty minutes before Indy hit something hard with his shovel – after Marion brushed some of the sand away with her hand, it was revealed to be a block of sandstone. Just a few more moments of digging passed, and then we had the entire block outlined.

Indiana didn't stop digging until there were six or seven blocks of sandstone protruding from the ground. With ease, he then yanked out one of those stones from the wall that had been revealed. Behind the now gaping space where the stone used to be was a dark tunnel; I couldn't see very far down it, but Indiana and Marion hopped right in without a second thought. Mutt and I followed more slowly.

We stumbled down a long, downwards shaft filled with rocks, rubble, debris and boulders. At the bottom was a small gray platform where we stopped to catch our bearings.

There were only two ways to go from where we now stood – back up the shaft, or forge ahead through a tunnel. Indiana explained to us what was ahead, saying, "there're a couple yards of catacombs, before we emerge in the main chamber, where the Ark of the Covenant was held. Otherwise, I think that's it." I shut my eyes, trying to dispel memories of the only other catacombs I had been in: the Parisian ones that were off-limits to civilians, and for good reason, too. Indy pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, shining it ahead of us.

There wasn't really any time for hanging around, though. Since we were there, we decided that we may as well go ahead. Indiana led the way, with Marion following, and Mutt and I in the back. I grabbed Mutt's hand tightly in my own; I couldn't see his reaction to it, though, because it was so dark. I don't know what he thought of holding a girl's hand. I mean, he was a greaser, not some guy who was groomed to take care of ladies. All the same, he didn't let go of my hand (much to my relief).

We headed slowly down the row of catacombs. There were mummies and skeletons on every side of me, some of them on the ground and others in coffins and sarcophagi. Marion sniggered when she saw the ones on the floor, telling us that it was probably her who knocked them over. Although it was dark, I could still see Indiana roll his eyes at this.

At the end of the row of Egyptian mummies, my college professor's flashlight illuminated a hole in the wall. There was a statue lying half-in and half-out of that hole; a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis. Everything was covered in layers and layers of dust as we stepped over the rubble and through the hole, into the next room, which Marion said was the main chamber.

Shining the flashlight around revealed three identical statues to the one on the ground, except these ones were standing and holding up the roof with upraised arms. There was a raised platform in the middle of the room upon which they were standing on, and beyond that, another empty platform made of gold, with a golden canopy. Indiana stepped forwards, always the first to go on, when suddenly he yelled in surprise and stumbled backwards, knocking me to the ground.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked, worried, as he pushed himself off of me. Just as Marion screamed and I heard the sound of hissing, Indy responded to my question.

"Snakes. There are still snakes here," he sighed, shaking his head and clenching his jaw. Mutt made as if to walk ahead anyways, but his father grabbed the back of his leather jacket and pulled him back. "They're cobras and asps, Mutt. Asps are really dangerous." All the same, Indiana pulled out a lighter and took the can of kerosene from Marion; he threw the liquid over the snakes and then lit them on fire. I turned away as the hissing reached an unbearably loud point, so loud it sounded like screeching, and the snakes burned; on the way over, Indy had explained that he had done the exact same thing last time he was in the Well, but still, we were killing innocent snakes!

Alright, I'll admit it. I didn't actually care. I may not have had a fear of snakes, but I didn't like them, especially if they were poisonous.

Once half the snakes had burned and the other half had slithered away, Indy announced it was safe enough for us to enter the main chamber. Still, my professor told us we had to look around quickly, because once the asps realized that there were no more real threats, they would come slithering back in – and this time, they would be angry.

I rushed up to the empty gold platform, where Indiana was standing. He explained that it was the exact place the Ark of the Covenant had been resting for centuries before he found it; I couldn't help but feel amazed that I was standing somewhere where the actual Ark had been. It was one of the greatest objects of history, and it seemed like a much bigger find than Pandora's Box, like I had found. But I snapped out of my reflections and concentrated on what the archaeologist was saying.

"Look around here for something, _anything,_ that Sallah might have been looking for. It will probably have to do with the Ark," he said.

"But how will we know that we've found it _when_ we find it? How will we know it's the right thing?" Mutt asked, coming up to stand beside me.

"You'll just know, Junior. Trust me." But after fruitless searching, we came up with nothing. Even after surveying the Anubis statues excessively, we still couldn't find anything.

I sighed and sat down heavily on the short flight of steps leading up to the altar on which Indiana was still searching for something that had to do with Sallah's disappearance. Mutt came and sat beside me, and I rested my head on his shoulder. "We're never going to find anything in here," he said, more to himself than Indy, but his father still heard him.

"There's got to be something..." he muttered, not giving up. I had to admire the archaeologist for his persistence – Sallah must have been more than just a friend if Indy was willing to do all this, just for him.

Mutt kicked a snake away as he sat me on his lap and looked up at his mother, who was picking her way towards us. "There's nothing here," she said, plopping herself beside me and her son. "It's pointless to keep searching." Her husband finally left the altar and started to pace the room, walking around the statues.

"There _has _to be something," he mused, taking off his hat and itching his head. I stroked my chin with a thoughtful look on my face, mimicking him, and Mutt laughed. Luckily, I put my hand down before Marion caught me. "There must be a clue as to where Sallah is in here. Why else would he have had the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in that locked drawer? Maybe we were supposed to go to the map room... no, I don't think that's it... maybe it just isn't in the main chamber!" he exclaimed. "Everyone back into the catacomb tunnel; we're going to search in there now!" he said excitedly, and I'm a bit ashamed to say that I groaned.

XxXxX

After an hour or two of searching _every single goddamned mummy_, we still hadn't found anything. I was getting extremely frustrated; so frustrated that even Mutt couldn't calm me down. Plus, I now smelled like dead people – really, really dead people.

"Now what?" I snapped. I was tired, sweaty, hot, and the time change was really starting to get to me. Indiana, though, wasn't ready to give up yet.

"We believe that Sallah didn't find whatever he was looking for, right?" he said, talking to himself again. "So it's possible that the object was hidden somewhere where we haven't looked!"

"Indy, I'm tired of searching. We're not going to find anything. I don't mean to be rude, but..." I sighed.

"I'm afraid I have to agree," Marion added. "There's nowhere else we can search anyways."

"Unless..." Indiana said slowly, before running back into the main chamber. He got out his bullwhip and flicked it, wrapping the whip around the top of one of the standing Anubis statues with the upraised arms. He then started to scale the statue, grunting with effort.

"Indy! Get back down here; you're too old for that now!" Marino exclaimed, running after him, but her husband just kept climbing. I didn't really see what was wrong with it; he was Indiana Jones, after all. And right now, he sure seemed to be returning to his formal glory – what I'm trying to say is, he's acting like his old self when he was younger.

Marion shook her head and herded Mutt and I out of the way. "I know what he's going to do," she grumbled as he reached the top of the statue. "The same thing as before..."

I watched with wide eyes as Indiana braced himself between the top of the statue and the ceiling, and rocked the colossus back and forth, before he managed to rip it loose from its place. It went toppling into the wall, knocking through sandstone and cement as he rode on top of it, grabbing his whip to keep himself steady. He had broken a hole through the wall; the opposite wall as last time, where the other statue was crushed. The sound the whole thing made when it hit the wall was earth-shattering; so loud I almost covered my ears. Now there were two Anubis statues lying on the ground – but I realized in horror at the same time as everyone else that that meant there weren't enough colossuses holding up the ceiling.

Screaming, I ran out of the room and through the new hole in the wall that Indiana had created as the roof in the main chamber caved in. Sand, dust and stone flew everywhere as I dragged Mutt by the hand after me, and Marion followed on our heels. Indy stayed in the shadows of the other room as we ran in there to safety, where the ceiling wasn't caving in.

"Brilliant," Marion coughed sarcastically, glancing at her husband. "You bastard; now we might be stuck in here!"

"We've gotten out before, and we can do it again," Indiana grinned, speaking in his deep voice. He shone the flashlight, which was still in his hand, around the room. It was almost identical to the other tunnel of catacombs we had passed through, except unlike the other one, there was no wall at the end. This one went on as far as the eye could see.

"Do we have to search this whole thing?" Mutt complained to his father, as I jumped when a snake slithered underfoot.

"Unless we find something... then yes," Indy said grimly.

After a long pause, I spoke up. "I don't... I don't think we _are _going to find anything," I said.

"Why's that, doll?" Mutt asked.

Pointing at some of the overturned and bare skeletons and mummies, I sighed. "Look at the extensive damage done by grave robbers. I may not be an expert on Egyptian archaeology, but I know a thing or two, and these catacombs have definitely been grave-robbed. Either that, or our enemies have gotten here before us."

Looking around the room, the others saw that I was right. Coffins and sarcophagi had been overturned and emptied, and the mummies that used to be in them had been carelessly left on the floor. A lot of them were broken and shattered, and the mummies, who were almost always buried with their riches, were bare to the bone – literally. Still, there wasn't a speck of treasure on the vile, decaying bodies. Plus, there were places on the floor where there wasn't as much dust as there was in other spots, as if someone had walked there before. Sighing, I walked over to a sarcophagus in the corner, which was on a raised altar. It had obviously housed the body of an important person, but now, that skeleton was laying half on the floor, and half in the coffin. The entire place had been robbed.

"But that doesn't make sense," Indiana said, grasping in the dark for hope. He didn't want to believe that there truly was nothing in here that could help us find Sallah. "I just broke down that wall. How could the tomb robbers have gotten in?" In response, I simply pointed silently towards the rest of the tunnel that was shrouded in darkness.

"We don't know how long these catacombs go for, and we don't know if there's another entrance. It's perfectly possible that the thieves got in that way, but never broke down the wall into the Well of Souls." My professor still looked doubtful, though, so I added one last point: "You of all people know how well the ancient Egyptians took care of their dead. Do you really think they would have left them as damaged as this?" I waved towards one of the almost-destroyed mummies. "_Tomb-robbers_ have damaged them, and taken the things they were buried with."

It was a far-fetched theory, but it was the only one any of us had – and besides, I wasn't lying when I said there was nothing of worth in these catacombs.

We trudged out of the place in defeat, Indy hanging his head uncharacteristically. He was upset beyond belief; he had really been counting on finding something to help him find Sallah. Now we were back to square one: we didn't have a single lead.

We climbed through the wreckage of the main chamber: Indiana had really done a number on it by caving in the roof, but at least we could still get out of it. Stone was now lying on the floor in boulders and giant pieces of rock, and the dust in the air still hadn't settled, but at least now there was light shining through the ceiling. It was now amazingly easy to see where we were going, and as an added bonus, the snakes were staying out of the light now.

Indiana and Mutt had already stepped outside when suddenly Marion gasped, getting an idea. "The robbed catacombs had gone on for as far as the eye could see, right?" she said, as Indy turned back towards her, raising an eyebrow. "So why don't these ones?" she pointed back down the shaft.

It took Indy a split second to realize what she was saying, and then he climbed back into the place. Mutt stood outside, bewildered, but he followed nonetheless. My favourite archaeologist ran down the shaft and stopped in front of the wall directly opposite the entrance to the catacombs. Knocking on it, my jaw dropped as a hollow sound echoed around the room we were standing in.

"There's something behind this wall," Indy said, a grin cracking across his face. "Mutt, help me knock it down." The two men then proceeded to body-slam the wall repeatedly, as Marion glanced at me and rolled her eyes. It was actually kind of comical watching Mutt trying to act tough.

"Oh, move," I snapped at them after I was sure they were about to break their shoulders. Indiana and my greaser complied and shifted out of the way; I walked up to the wall and kicked it as hard as I could with my foot.

Okay, I will admit that I was expecting it to collapse and then I could be all like _ha, I'm stronger than you boys_, but all I got out of it was a really badly hurt foot. I guess it serves me right, but still. Mutt started laughing hysterically, which pissed me off; I walked into the catacombs and grabbed an empty sarcophagus in a huff. Chucking it at the wall (with Marion's help) shut Mutt up, though, and earned me the satisfaction I wanted when the rather thin stone wall finally collapsed.

"_Ha_."

We stepped in through the hole into a treasure room that was probably one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. It was laden with gold and riches, all probably dating back to the very beginning of ancient Egypt. "So far," I said, looking around in awe, "this place seems to have avoided looters."

All the same, the room was extremely small, but there were more artifacts than I could count. "How are we supposed to know what it was that Sallah was looking for, if he even _was _looking for something in here?" Mutt asked, always the party pooper.

Marion was picking her way through the stuff. "Well, it was probably something that had some giant superstition attached to it, because if it wasn't, no one would have kidnapped Sallah."

I shook my head. "This is too damned hard. We don't know what he was looking for, we don't really even know _where _he was looking for it, we don't know where he is, we don't know why he was kidnapped, we don't know who kidnapped him, and we don't know why those Arabs were following us. We're never going to find him; we don't even have any real leads!" I cried, frustrated. Mutt came over and put his arms around me, but I shook him off. "We may as well take all these goddamned treasures, because one of them is _bound _to have something to do with Sallah."

"I still think that it probably has something to do with the Ark of the Covenant-"

"Give it a rest, Indiana!" Marion joined in my rant. "Madie's got a point!"

Suddenly, a loud banging sounded from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to see Mutt, who had knocked over a bowl filled with jewellery. "Whoops. Sorry. Just ignore me..." he said sheepishly, when something on the floor caught my eye. I bent down and picked it up in my hand. It was a painting of three cats: one was orange, one was black and one was white. But what really caught my attention was that fact that it was identical to the picture in Sallah's bedroom!

"Why is there a painting of Sallah's cats in here? I thought this place was ancient or something?" I said aloud.

Indiana hurried over to me. "Sallah's _allergic_ to cats..." he mumbled.

"Really? Then why is this identical picture in his house?"

"I don't know!" he exclaimed, gently pulling it out of my hands. "Maybe the headpiece to the Staff of Ra wasn't the clue... maybe it was this picture!"

Well, at least he sounded hopeful now.

I took the picture back gently and ran my hands over the smooth surface, when suddenly Mutt grabbed it away from me. "Hey-" I started to protest, but shut up when he gave me a look. My greaser flipped it over so that he was staring at the back of the frame, which was covered in cloth.

Before anyone could react, Mutt whipped his stiletto knife out of his pocket and sliced a thin line down the centre of the canvas on the back. Indy tried to grab the picture out of Mutt's hands, but the younger man just danced away, holding it out of his father's reach. Mutt shook it upside-down and something heavy fell out of the cut cloth, much to everyone's surprise. I scooped it up from where it was lying on the floor and passed it to the expert.

"I have absolutely no idea what this is," Indiana said after examining it. Turning the thing over in his hands, he peered at the object so closely his nose was almost touching it.

The thing that had fallen out of the painting was painted with black and gray stripes, and it was twice the length of Indiana's forefinger, and a little bit wider. Otherwise, it pretty much looked like a really fat stick, besides the fact that it was smooth as silk and polished so well that it shone in the dim light. Mutt grabbed his find back from his father and glanced at it himself. The stick, which wasn't hollow in the least bit (actually, it was rather heavy) was curved up a little bit at the very end. Mutt examined that end, and he seemed to find something.

"Look, there's little Egyptian writing right there," he pointed to the bottom. Passing it to Indiana again, everyone waited patiently as the archaeologist translated the hieroglyphics.

"It says… Ramla," Indiana mumbled, puzzled. "I'm afraid I don't know what that means. It must be a name, or something."

"Is there a city in Egypt named Ramla?" Marion interrupted, excited now. "Maybe this is the clue, and Sallah's being held in Ramla!"

"We'll have to ask Fayah," Indy shrugged, pocketing the stick-thing and grabbing the painting of the cats from which the object had fallen. Clapping his son on the back, Indy said "Good work, Junior. Even I wouldn't have been able to find that piece."

"Don't call me Junior," Mutt grumbled as I laughed and took his hand.

"Well," Marion started, "there's really no point in hanging around here anymore if we think we've found what we're looking for. What do you all say to heading back? I know that I, for one, am exhausted." We all nodded in agreement, and after a grunt of annoyance, Indiana finally said we should leave. _Thank God_, I thought. I was about ready to pass out from lack of sleep, and from not being able to breathe clear air for a few hours.

And with that, we climbed back up the shaft and emerge back under the Egyptian sun, leaving the Well of Souls behind us - for good.

XxXxX

**A/N:** Ew. I'll admit that this chapter wasn't the greatest either; I'm still trying to get stuff out of the way, alright? Then it'll get good. It seems to me that all of the beginnings of my stories are like this.

Sorry I didn't update on the weekend like I promised; life got busier than I expected. My greatest fear is always that the 'anonymous' reviewers won't check back and they'll stop reading the stories, you know? I wish there was a way I could contact you guys who don't have accounts!

If anyone is wondering why I reviewed my own story, here's the truth: I was hanging out at my friend's house, and we were fooling around on . When I left, I forgot to log out, and she stayed on my account and reviewed a bunch of different stories – including my own. Thanks a lot, Courtney :/

If you're wondering where I got the ideas for the treasure room and the tomb-robbed catacombs, well, they're not actually straight out of my imagination. I own the book _Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide,_ and in it is a map of Tanis, and the Well of Souls – including an additional tunnel of catacombs and the treasure room which the book clearly illustrates. The book said it was there, so I thought _why not add it in?_

I don't own anything you may recognize and I don't own Indiana Jones and all related characters; plus, I don't own the song at the beginning, which is by Hilary Duff. Yes, I know she's not the sort of person someone my age should listen to (let me give you a hint: I'm older than 4 and younger than 400) but I absolutely _love _her song Jericho. It's my guilty pleasure – and she sounds like a really good singer in this song. Granted, the lyrics have nothing to do with this chapter, but... Jericho was apparently the city that the Ark of the Covenant destroyed (more or less. I don't really know my Bible).

Have you guys all heard the news? Apparently MTV caught up with Shia Labeouf (Mutt) and asked him about a possible Indiana Jones 5... and he said that it 'wasn't far off!' I'm so excited! :D Plus, apparently Harrison Ford (Indy) has been hitting the gym... what do you guys think? I seriously hope they're going to make another movie, even though it's probably going to be like 'Indiana Jones and the Escape from the Nursing Home' or something.

Haha, I'm just kidding. I love Indy, no matter how old he is. I would be uber-excited about a new movie. But seriously, what do you guys think of all this, and what would you think of another movie?

Okay, end of rant.

Thank you to everyone who added this story to their alert list and their favourite list, and an extra special thanks to everyone who has reviewed! You guys are the reason I keep writing, and the reason why I'm inspired to write :) The more reviews, the sooner the updates! Also, just as a side note, I found it funny that half the people who reviewed loved 'Mutt's hair part' the best. You guys make me smile :)

Review responses to:

_Lexi Blaze:_ Hello, Courtney. Next time you review random things, make sure you do it on your own account :P ilu!  
><em>TinyDancer365:<em> Thanks for reviewing! I hope you enjoyed this as well :)  
><em>lilygirl592:<em> I try :P I'm glad you like the lyrics though! You have no idea how hard it is to find the right song for every chapter :/  
><em>MandaPanda89:<em> Hope this update pleased you! I love hearing from new people!  
><em>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x:<em> It's always a pleasure to hear from you ;) and I have to admit I don't really know what to say to your comment except... *wink, wink*  
><em>tilted-sun:<em> Geez, so many thought-provoking questions! Lol, thanks for summing everything up for me. It's good someone is keeping track! And, as for the answers, you'll just have to wait and see, and keep reading and reviewing... ;)  
><em>Belle of Books:<em> Great to hear from someone new; thanks for your kind words! I hope you review this chapter as well :)  
><em>Merlincrazy:<em> Thank you so much! And thank you for reviewing every chapter, right from the start!  
><em>Melody:<em> I love how that's everyone's favourite part, even though it was only, like, one line long. And you're welcome for mentioning you; it's always great to hear from you! :)  
><em>misslaurajones: <em>Yep, back to the Well of Souls ;)  
><em>ParfaitFille:<em> Hope you liked this chapter!

Alright, that's it for this chapter! But see that pretty little button down there? How about clicking it and leaving a review? I'd love to know what you think – did you love it, hate it, or do you have suggestions or comments? Anything is welcome, and anonymous reviews _are_ accepted! And even if you're too shy to review... thanks for reading, anyways!

Until next time (which I will admit I'm rather excited about),

-Alexa Blaze


	4. Heaven On Earth

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 4: _Heaven on Earth_

_Fell in love with you and everything that you are, nothing I can do, I'm really crazy about you/when you're next to me, it's just like heaven on earth (you're heaven, you're heaven, you're heaven on earth)/tell me that I'll always be the one that you want, don't know what I'd do if I ever lose you/look at you and what I see is heaven on earth, I'm in love with you_

XxXxX

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

We arrived back at Fayah and Sallah's house in the Old Quarter in one piece; what I mean to say is, no one tried to attack us, and there was no funny business.

It was late in the evening, and all of Fayah's children were just about to finish eating dinner; some of them were even getting ready to go to bed. After some more awkward introductions, Fayah forced us to sit down and have dinner with her outside on their third-story balcony that overlooked the Old Quarter of Cairo. The moon and stars were already out, and it made for a beautiful Arabian view. I was starving and extremely glad that she had prepared a meal big enough for ten elephants. Besides, we needed all that food - Mutt ate over half of it.

Once we were done our meal, Indiana pulled out the black-and-grey striped stick that we had found in the Well of Souls. He set it on the dinner table in front of Fayah, along with the picture of the three cats from the treasure room. Frowning, she listened intently as Indy explained to her what we had found, and he asked her what 'Ramla' meant.

"Yes… I know what it means. And now that I think about it, Sallah has been very obsessed with the Ramla myth lately. I guess it makes sense when you say this was probably what he was looking for," she picked up the stick and examined it closely.

After a few moments of silence, Fayah launched into an explanation of the 'Ramla myth,' as she called it. "Back in ancient Egyptian times," she started, "there were three cats. One was white, one was orange, and the last was black," she pointed to the different cats in the picture in turn. "There was a myth that the white cat could see the past, and the black cat could see the future."

"What about the orange cat?" Mutt interrupted rudely and impatiently. I kicked him under the table, sending him a message to just shut up and listen.

"I am getting there," Fayah said, already sounding exasperated. "The orange cat could see the present." Mutt opened his mouth to say something, but she held up her hand, signalling for him to be quiet. "This means that it could see what was happening anywhere in the world at the given moment that it was being used. For example, if the cat was in Egypt, it could see what was happening in America at the same time." Mutt closed his mouth and nodded, resorting to silence.

"Anyways," Fayah started up again, "the legend was that if you purposely killed one of these cats, you would posses its power. The cat that could see the past was given to King Tutankhamen as a gift, and it was locked in the tomb of the Boy King when he died. Since the cat was in there without food or water for a long time, it died of natural causes and illness. This death was obviously not caused on purpose; therefore, no one inherited the gift of seeing the past.

"The next two cats, the ones that could see the present and future, were turned to stone by the gods - or so the legends say. The present cat was smashed to smithereens sometime in the seventeen hundreds, I think. It wasn't killed on purpose, so no one inherited the gift of seeing the present. But the future cat was lost to the changing sands and times of Egypt."

"So… what does Ramla mean?" Mutt interrupted.

"Ramla was the name of the future-seeing cat," Fayah nodded respectfully towards the greaser. "I think this stick-piece that you have found, Indiana, is a clue as to where the pieces of Ramla are hidden."

Taking it back gently, Indiana pocketed the piece and smiled at Fayah. "Thanks. I think you're right; this might be exactly what Sallah was looking for. If this… cat… got into the wrong hands, the world could become seriously messed up."

"How so?" I asked curiously.

"There are many ways," Indy started. "One of the bigger ways is that someone could look ahead to the future and predict, say, the outcome of a sporting event, for example. They could bet thousands of dollars on that event, and win the money, since they know who's going to win the sports game. After doing this excessively, a person could become so rich they could have whatever they want, or control whatever they want."

Marion ran her hands though her hair. "Geez. Can't we ever go on an adventure where we're searching for a missing camel or something, instead of all this supernatural stuff?" she said. Indy chuckled before getting out of his seat and strolling into Sallah's bedroom. He grabbed the painting of the three cats from in there, and compared it with the painting that I had found in the treasure room.

"They're exactly the same," Indiana said, examining every detail and returning to the dinner table. Mutt grabbed the painting from Sallah's room out of Indy's hand and slit the back of the canvas with his knife, just like he had done with the other one. But unlike the ancient one, nothing fell out.

Shaking it upside down, a puzzled look etched itself onto Mutt's face. "I was sure there was something in here…" he muttered.

Indiana snatched the painting back. "Now look what you've done," he grumbled. "You destroyed Sallah's painting."

"Sorry, Gramps," Mutt said sarcastically, slumping down in the chair where he was sitting. The conversation at the table then ceased, and after a couple minutes of silence, Fayah finally spoke up.

"I have prepared three beds," she said, waving her hand towards three separate rooms in the house.

"Oh, goody. I get my own bed," Marion said excitedly, like a schoolgirl; she stood up and glanced down at Indiana. "You snore too much. Plus, you kick me while we're sleeping."

Laughing, Indiana tilted his fedora over his eyes and settled back in his chair. "The extra bed was so that Mutt and Madie didn't have to sleep together. But you can have the third bed to yourself anyways Marion; I'm going to sleep here, outside on the deck."

"Suit yourself," she shrugged, walking inside. Laughing, Mutt and I followed, and we said goodnight to Fayah and her children before we turned in for the night.

XxXxX

It was about three in the morning by the time I got frustrated with myself. I hadn't gotten a wink of shut-eye, mostly because of the time change, and because I was cold. Lying awake in a bed for a few hours really does that to you.

I slid my feet over the side of the bed and stepped onto the hard stone floor, stumbling into a cabinet. After I regained by balance and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I exited the room and walked into the foyer. Indiana was still sleeping in a chair outside; I could hear the sounds of nine other sleeping people around the house, and most of them were snoring. After running a hand through my hair and trying to make myself look at least a little bit presentable, I stumbled into the room that my greaser was in.

Mutt was lying sprawled across his bed, snoring unattractively. His leather jacket was hanging on the bedpost, but otherwise, his room was a mess. Clothing lay all over the floor, and his boots were right in my path, almost causing me to trip.

Mutt himself looked rather tidy, though. He was lying under the blankets, sprawled out like a starfish, and he still had his shirt and jeans on. I flipped back the covers and crawled into the bed with him, and he didn't even stir.

That is, he didn't stir until I pressed my cold toes against his warm feet.

Mutt awoke with a start, looking around in bewilderment before remembering where he was. "What're you doing here, doll?" he asked me, yawning and turning onto his side so that he was facing me.

"I'm cold," I pouted. And it was the truth: I had crawled into Mutt's bed because I was freezing my butt off, and I knew that my greaser was almost always warm. He was my own personal heater.

Mutt, who was still half asleep, turned on his side again and flung his arm around me, crushing me into the side of the bed. If I had had any hope before to move, it had now been abolished.

"You should be sleeping, babe," Mutt said, closing his eyes. I pressed my cold toes against his feet again, waking him up for the second time. "Okay, baby, I get it. You're freezing," he muttered in an annoyed tone, a little bit resentfully. I sighed and snuggled into his embrace, a little bit of a smile etched on my face.

Suddenly, Mutt ran his fingers slowly along my jaw line, and I pulled back a little to try and see what he was doing. He tilted my chin up and stole a quick kiss, before pulling back just as quickly. I knew that he was doing it because it always surprised me when he kissed me - Mutt usually wasn't so openly affectionate.

I had had a relatively large number of boyfriends before, and none of them acted like Mutt in the least bit. They all seemed to like kissing me whenever they got the chance; my greaser, on the other hand, hardly ever kissed me, so when he did, it always came as a surprise. Most of my other relationships had been on a level of physical attraction, but with Mutt, it was entirely different. I loved him because of who he was, not because of what he looked like (although I must admit that he was amazingly good-looking). No other boys had ever really held themselves back from me like my greaser did, and all of them had always been trying to get some, while Mutt (of all people) respected my personal boundaries. Surprisingly, he never tried to cross the line.

I didn't know if he wasn't a very romantic person just because he was like that, or if it was because he was a greaser. I knew that generally, greasers didn't get into serious relationships like the one I was in with Mutt, and they weren't the types to hold hands or kiss a girl. That was my theory of why Mutt wasn't openly affectionate in the least bit. Still, I liked it when he kissed me, and part of the reason I liked it was probably because it rarely happened. This way, when it did, it was usually something special.

All the same, you could never tell what kind of greaser someone would be: the kind like Mutt, who wasn't a romantic at all, or the kind that always tried to force themselves on you and have one-night-stands. I had met my fair share of the latter, and they were nasty. That was what I had been afraid of when I first met Mutt – I had thought he would be one of those rude, disrespectful greasers. But, surprisingly and pleasingly enough, he wasn't.

Mutt had pulled away just so he could see my reaction; he wanted to see me smiling or frowning or yawning or laughing… at the moment, I was simply laying there, looking up at him with love etched into my eyes. I really did love Mutt; so much that I wasn't going to push him just so I could get the satisfaction of more kisses. He respected my limits, so I would respect his.

I got caught in Mutt's hazel-brown eyes, and let me tell you, once you're looking in them, there's no way to stop looking. His eyes were so bright and filled with his arrogant youth, and they were so warm and calming… my greaser then moved in for the second kiss, and I welcomed him into it, pressing his warm, soft lips gently against mine. We weren't going to get into any heavy making out tonight or anything; we had only done that once, and even that had been an exception: he had just been hit by a car, and he had told me he loved me. But otherwise, the only other kisses we had shared had been soft and short.

I pulled away first, leaning my head against his chest and clutching handfuls of his t-shirt fabric in my small fists. Mutt sighed and held me tighter against him, shifting into a more comfortable position for the both of us.

We rested in silence for a few minutes, because neither one of us wanted to sleep anymore; we just wanted to enjoy the moments in each other's arms. I was curled into a ball and pressed into my greaser's side, but he didn't seem to mind. It probably helped that he was a head taller than me, and a lot bigger and stronger, too.

After a while, Mutt raised his head from the pillow. "Madie?" he asked tiredly, trying to catch my eye. I was preoccupied looking at the five o'clock shadow on his face, though. He needed to shave, but I wasn't about to tell him that - I thought he looked sexy with the shadow of stubble dusting along his lower jaw. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that, either.

"Mmm?" I responded lazily, hardly even opening my lips to speak. All the sounds we made sounded so loud in the silent house; I felt like everyone could hear our conversation, even though the door was closed, and we were whispering.

"You know," I cut him off, needing to say something before I forgot, "this is kind of awkward to admit, but when I'm near you, Mutt, I feel entirely safe," I blushed, tucking my head under his chin so he couldn't see my expression. I felt his body rumble underneath mine as he chuckled, before his fingers started to trace patterns on my back. "I don't know; I guess I just feel like you can protect me from everything. Besides the fact I don't need protecting," I added the last sentence hastily.

"Way to ruin the mood, doll," he chuckled again. "But I think I know what you mean."

"It's just… I feel invincible, I guess," I laughed at my own words as he continued to stroke my back in silence.

Another couple minutes passed by without words, before Mutt spoke up. "Does my hair look okay?"

"Jeez," I laughed, "_Now_ who's ruining the mood? You're almost as bad as Angie," I shook my head, smiling. No matter what the conversation topic was, I enjoyed feeling safe in Mutt's arms, and just being by his side.

"So…" I said, trying to start some small-talk, "uh… what do you do after you save the world with your father, Mutt?" I asked teasingly.

"I make friendship bracelets," he said, perfectly serious. I laughed so hard I was afraid I would wake someone up.

"Trying to have a serious conversation with you is like trying to talk to a rock."

"Wow. I think I'm offended," Mutt rolled his eyes, chuckling. I finally realized that trying to talk with Mutt was pointless, so I gave up, but not before teasing him by backhanding him in the stomach.

He shook his head at me, grinning. "Baby, I don't know if you've realized this, but you're a terrible fighter."

"What does that have to do with friendship bracelets?" I asked, a little bit annoyed. Mutt grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine, holding the back of my hand up to his lips and kissing it before continuing.

"No, I'm just saying all this because you backhanded me in the stomach, doll," he started. "You should never ever do that, for three reasons: one, it doesn't hurt your opponent that much, two, they could take advantage of it way too easily, and three, you could break your wrist, babe," he squeezed my hand. "If you're really set on backhitting, though, doll, I suggest you hit the person on the bridge of the nose with the back of your hand."

"Why?"

"Because it's hard for them to take control of the situation after you hit them in the face. Backhanding them on the nose will make their eyes water, and they'll temporarily lose sight and focus; plus, if you're lucky, you could break their nose, babe. At least you would gain the upper hand in the fight."

"Alright then," I said, looking up at him, "I'll remember that next time we're supposed to be beating up bad guys."

"Oh," he suddenly added, "one more thing, doll. You don't punch with your thumb inside of your fist."

"But I thought-"

"You thought wrong," Mutt let go of my hand so he could show me how to make a proper fist, with the thumb on the side. I could hardly concentrate on what he was saying, though; being this close to my greaser was distracting. All the same, the thirty-second fight lessons he gave me would eventually probably save my life, and we both knew it.

"You know, you're pretty smart, considering you dropped out of school," I mused.

"Well, sorry that everyone can't have their daddies pay for their education their entire lives, just like _you, _doll. I didn't even know my dad until last summer."

"I know that's not the reason you dropped out, Mutt. Stop trying to change the subject."

He sniggered. "Fine. You caught me. I dropped out because I simply wasn't cut out for it, and I preferred to be working on motorcycles in the garage. That's how I want to spend my life – fixing bikes. Plus, I'm pretty good at it, too."

"Okay... but even though you dropped out, you're still rather smart," I mumbled.

"The reason is that I grew up around teachers and people with more education than was probably legal, babe," he rolled his eyes. "I was forced to attend private schools, boarding schools, and prep schools, in which I didn't fit in at all. They were expensive, too, and I considered them a waste of money, because I would do whatever I could to get kicked out. Usually it worked. I just didn't see the point of learning math, debate, art, and literature. We even learned pointless things like chess, golf, tennis, and fencing. They're completely useless skills. Actually, now that I think about it," he added, "fencing came in handy when I searched for the Crystal Skull with my father. Fencing is the reason I have this scar – and it's the reason I'm still alive," he pointed to the tiny scar on his cheek, and I tentatively reached out and touched it gently with my finger.

"You're good at fencing, right?" I said softly. "I haven't actually seen a swordfight before."

He chuckled. "I can handle a blade like nobody's business. I was fencing champ for two years in a row."

"Only two?"

"I was kicked out – disqualified, actually – because I gambled. On myself. To win."

I started laughing again, and had to shove my hand in my mouth to keep from being too loud. "You're ridiculous, you know that, right?"

"Oh, shut up. You're not much better yourself, doll. But anyways, the point of all this was that I dropped out because I want to be a mechanic, and eventually, become a builder of custom motorcycles. Maybe I'll even open a shop in California one day," he winked. "That's what I'd like the most."

I stopped laughing. "California is kind of far away..."

He rolled his eyes. "It's probably not going to happen, doll. My parents aren't going to let me – and besides, it would take a few years, if not decades. I'm too young, and I don't have the money. So chill, baby."

Sighing, I lapsed into silence and closed my eyes, ending the conversation. I just really didn't want Mutt to leave, even if it was in a few years...

I had almost fallen asleep by the time I realized two things: one, I was no longer cold, and two, Mutt was still wide-awake. When I looked up at his face, I couldn't look away - not because I looked into his eyes, but because his expression was _so damned cute._ It was his 'concentrating' expression; he was puzzled about something, and he was trying to figure that something out in his head. Once he snapped out of it, my greaser looked down at me curiously. "Baby, why are you staring at me?" he asked. "Do I have something on my face, or…"

I giggled. "No. It's just that… you look really hot when you're thinking," I blushed furiously for the second time that night. It seemed the confessions were really spilling out of me at the moment.

He kissed the top of my head. "Well, you don't think half bad either, doll," he retorted, before letting go of me and getting out of the bed.

"Where're you going?" I asked, worried about why he was leaving me. Had I done something?

"I'll be right back, Madie. Don't worry. I just have to get something," he yawned, stretching, before walking out of the bedroom. After a few silent minutes (only interrupted by Mutt's loud curse of pain when he walked into a table), he re-entered the bedroom with something in his hand.

"Oh, God, Mutt. Can't you just leave it alone?" I rolled my eyes when I saw that it was Sallah's painting of the three cats. Mutt grinned and slid back into the bed with me, and I jumped when he put _his_ cold toes against _mine _for a change.

"Doesn't fell so good now doll, does it?" he winked, and I jokingly backhanded him gently on the bridge of the nose, like he had taught me. "So you were paying attention!" he exclaimed in surprise.

I ignored his comment and slid my arms around my greaser's midsection again, cuddling into his warm chest. He held the painting of the three cats out in front of us, examining the front.

"You have no idea, babe," he said, "how hard it was to get this picture from a sleeping Indiana." I rolled my eyes again and reached up, covering his hands with my small ones, so that now we were both holding the picture and its frame.

Mutt flipped it on its back again, and ran his fingers over the smooth cloth surface with the cut down the centre. "I was sure there was something in here," he mused. "I could just feel it. Not literally – it was a gut feeling." He tried shaking the picture upside-down again, but nothing fell out. Mutt then took out his switchblade and cut another couple of lines into the cloth on the back of the picture; he then pulled the canvas right off, examining the now fully-revealed backside of the painting of the three cats.

"Give it a rest," I yawned, tired now. But my greaser continued to examine every inch of the back, although it was pointless, since nothing was there.

Finally, I grabbed the picture out of his hands and chucked it across the room, where it collided with the wall before falling to the floor. "Go to sleep," I grumbled, catching handfuls of his t-shirt fabric in my fists again and forcing him to look at my glare. Mutt chuckled and gave up, going limp in the bed and twisting his legs with mine.

But it wasn't over yet. My greaser still had the canvas that he had cut away in his hand, and he was now examining _that._ I was about to chuck it across the room as well when his eyes widened and he pointed to something.

"Ha! I _was_ right! Look, doll - right here in the corner, someone has written _'Lighthouse of Alexandria_!' I think we're back on track to finding Sallah!" he showed me the words written in some sort of black lettering on the very corner of the cloth. He made as if to get out of bed, but I pulled him back down beside me.

"You can tell Indy about your amazing find… in the morning," I growled, keeping a firm grip on Mutt's t-shirt. "It's time for some sleep right now."

He smiled and stroked some of my brown hair back from my face, setting the piece of canvas on the floor beside the bed. "Fine," my greaser agreed, looking intently into my eyes. I settled into Mutt's chest, sighing softly and happily, simply content with the fact that I was safe in his arms. And then we (finally) drifted off into an Arabian dreamland.

XxXxX

Henry (Mutt) Jones III's POV

I woke up early in the morning, blinking groggily. When I turned over on my side in my bed, I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw another body sleeping beneath the covers with me, before I remembered that it was just Madie, who had come into the room with me because she had been 'cold.'

She was only sleeping under a thin white blanket that fitted around her curves beautifully; I couldn't help but stare at her sleeping form for a few moments before I reached out a hand and gently shook her shoulder, trying to wake her up.

"Mmpfh-ga," she muttered, not yet awake as she turned towards me. Madie's hair was strewn across her face, and her hot breath gently escaped her soft lips as she slowly opened her gorgeous brown eyes to stare at me tiredly. "I'm sleeping. No one's home. Go away," she grumbled, pulling my pillow out from under my head and placing it on top of her head, so that she was covering herself entirely from the world. She buried herself deeper in the covers, shutting me out.

I tried shaking her shoulder again, but the preppy just shook me off. Sighing, I got up on my knees on the bed and leaned down over top of her, sliding my arms around her midriff and running my warm hands against the cold skin of her stomach.

That woke her up.

She screamed a little, sitting upright and rolling over to the other side of the bed, away from me as I laughed. "Wake up, doll. I'm hungry," I said.

"Who says I'm going to make any food for you?" she eyed me a bit resentfully, but I knew that she didn't really feel that way.

"I say so. Let's go, babe," I teased.

"No," she pouted, wrapping the bedclothes around her legs to prove that she wasn't going anywhere.

"I'll start singing," I threatened, as her eyes went wide.

"No no no, you wouldn't actually, would you?" she asked, jaw hanging open. "I mean, no offense. You may be a great singer, but…"

"_Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream! Make him the cutest that I've ever seen! Give him two lips like roses and clover, then tell him that his lonesome nights are over_!"

"Fine, I'm awake, I'm awake! I'll go make you some food or something!" she gave in, smiling. I leaned across the bed and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before I sauntered off to the shower and she went to wherever people cook my food.

XxXxX

Later that day (and after a breakfast that Madie prepared), I explained my 'Lighthouse of Alexandria' find to Indiana, pointing out the lettering on the white canvas from the back of the three cat picture. He agreed that it was our best lead, so we decided that we would leave tomorrow, after a short day of rest at Fayah and Sallah's.

Madison and I decided to go for a walk through Egypt and take in the sights, sounds and smells of the place. We donned light clothing and jackets; it may have been December, but it was still relatively warm outside.

We strolled down the streets of the Old Quarter in Cairo, looking at all the ancient buildings - and after five minutes, we were lost beyond hope. The roads didn't seem to follow any set of guidelines; they were haphazard and all over the place, much to my chagrin.

We stumbled into a small city plaza with a fountain in the centre. Around the fountain was a group of protesters holding up signs in Arabic; intrigued, Madie and I moved forward, trying to see what they were protesting about.

In the centre of the group, standing on the edge of the fountain, was a duo of a man and a woman about the same age as me. They were clearly brother and sister, but the brother's skin was a shade or two paler. The two Egyptians had dark brown hair and small brown eyes, set deeply in an oval face, with small mouths, although the girl's lips were rather plump. Her long hair reached the centre of her back, and it was slightly curly. She was thin, and flat, but taller than her brother, who was very muscular (but short) and had spiky dark brown hair.

The girl was wearing a pink tank top and slacks, while her brother had on a green t-shirt and tan-coloured shorts. They were holding up signs with Arabian writing on them, just like the rest of the small group of protesters, but they seemed to be leading the cheers.

Madie and I pushed our way to the centre of the group, trying to find out what they were protesting, but no one spoke English. Finally, when we were in the middle of the crowd looking up at the brother and sister on the fountain ledge, we discovered that they spoke our language.

The girl jumped down from her place, abandoning her sign on the ground. "Why are you Americans here?" she asked. All her words were clipped, and she had a heavy accent.

Shrugging, I said "What are you protesting?"

She turned her eyes on me, and I noticed that she checked me out before responding. "We do not like the Egyptian government. We want someone new in their place; someone who deserves to be a leader." Sticking out her hand for me to shake, the girl said "I am Femi, and this is my brother Jafari," she pulled the man down from where he still was on the edge of the fountain. "Everyone in this group of protesters wants us to be the leaders of Egypt."

I blanched in shock. "Uh… why?"

"Because we are descendants of the last great pharaoh, Cleopatra!" Femi said proudly. "Why do these men come in and take over our country when we should have power? The pharaohs were great rulers; they could still be great! We are their descendants, so why not put us in charge?"

"Uh…" I said, deciding that this conversation was getting a bit awkward.

"So you actually got all these people," Madie gestured to the crowd, "to come and protest for you? They all think the same thing?" she scoffed. I had to say, I agreed with her – the idea was ridiculous.

"Yeah, and actually," I started, "Cleopatra wasn't that great of a ruler. She caused the downfall of Egypt way back then. No offense, but she was kind of a foolish queen."

"Do not insult our ancestor like that," Femi snapped, and it became apparent that she was the one who did all the talking, instead of her brother. I wanted to roll my eyes. "When we gain control of the power of Egypt, my brother will become pharaoh, and I will be second-in-line. You won't be laughing then. Stupid Americans."

"Stupid Egyptians," I muttered under my breath to Madie, who giggled. "I've never understood politics." Taking my switchblade out of my pocket, I started to flip it back and forth between my hands as I impatiently listened to the list of things Femi and Jafari would do if they were pharaohs.

"This is stupid," I whispered to Madie. "Let's get out of here." We were slowly inching away when, low and behold, Femi said something that caught my interest.

"-We would concentrate on financing archaeological trips, primarily the search for Ramla-"

"What?" I asked, moving forwards again and staring at her. "What do you mean 'the search for Ramla?'"

For the first time, Jafari spoke up. "There is a group of men called the Sons of Talib," Madie and I looked at each other in alarm at this, "who are trying to search for a cat named Ramla, but the government does not believe in the ancient Egyptian myth of this cat, so they won't finance the expedition. I think that it would be a worthwhile experience to search for an ancient artifact with as much power as Ramla." Jafari's English was just as clipped as Femi's, but his accent wasn't as strong, so he was much easier to understand.

"What else do you know of these… Sons of Talib?" Madie asked. I remembered how Fayah had told us they thought that the Sons of Talib had kidnapped Sallah, and if it was true, than this could be more proof that Sallah had been searching for Ramla.

Jafari raised his chin a little bit, about to respond."Not much. They are a very secret organization; we only know of their search for Ramla because some of our supporters have ties with people in the group. We are not a part of the group ourselves, but we support them. Egyptian history, which is what they concentrate on, is an important thing."

"Actually, we do know a couple things," Femi cut in, stepping in front of her brother, who gave her an exasperated look. "We know where their base of operations is, and what their next line of action is to find Ramla," she said hastily, looking me up and down again - and I could tell by her expression that she liked what she saw. It made me a bit uncomfortable, especially because Madie was right beside us, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Where's the base?" Madison asked eagerly, rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"I would tell you, but…" Femi glanced at me suggestively again, "…what's in it for us?"

"Look," I said, jerking forwards, "you don't understand how important this is. Our friend's life is in danger, and we need to find him before the 'Sons of Talib' kill him," I growled. Jafari clutched his sister's arm and pulled her behind him, probably thinking I was going to hit the Egyptian girl.

"We will tell you everything we know," Jafari said softly, "but we want to help you find your friend."

"What?" Madie, Femi and I all exclaimed at the same time.

Turning back towards his sister, Jafari sighed. "Don't you think we will gain more supporters if we find a missing person and find Ramla?"

Femi pursed her lips, before nodding. Wow - for a second there I had actually thought they wanted to help us just because we were in trouble, not for their own personal gain.

"If you want our information on the Sons of Talib, you must take us with you," Femi crossed her arms. It was obvious that it was her who was in charge in their relationship as siblings, although she looked to be nineteen while Jafari was surely at least twenty-one.

Madie and I exchanged glances. "This is really risky," she muttered under her breath, so that only I could hear. "Plus, it's dangerous. We don't know who these two people are, and from what I've seen already, they look like screwballs. I mean, descendants of Cleopatra trying to become pharaohs again? Really?"

I nodded. "But they said that they had valuable information on the Sons of Talib. We can't just pass up this offer."

Madie licked her lips and looked off into the distance, thinking. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by her as she did that; she looked cute, and I wasn't normally someone who called others 'cute.'

"We should take them to Indiana. He'll know what direction to take," she said after a few moments. I nodded, relieved that we wouldn't be making the final decision.

Sighing, I turned towards the brother and sister. "We'll see. Come with us, alright? And don't make a big deal out of it. We're just going to sneak out of this protest…" as we started to make our way through the crowd, Femi grinned at her brother. Hoo boy, I hoped I was making the right choice with this. Otherwise, Indiana would probably eat my dinner - and that would most certainly not be in my best interests. I was a hungry guy.

XxXxX

**A/N: **I'm going to try and keep this short.

How is everyone? Thank you to all who favourite and alert this story, and an extra thanks to the totally awesome people who review! Review responses to:

_MandaPanda89: _Thank you so much! And I'll try and keep people updated on a possible Indy 5 :)  
><em>Belle of Books: <em>Aw, thank you so much! Your words really mean a lot to me :)  
><em>merlincrazy: <em>Yep, of course there were snakes! ;)  
><em>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x: <em>Haha, well, you do a great job of it! Thanks for reviewing!  
><em>Lydily: <em>I'm glad I surprised you. I don't think it happens very often, so when it does, it's great! And no, you're not pathetic: it's true, some of her songs are actually pretty good! I hope to hear from you again :)  
><em>ParfaitFille: <em>Thank you for always reviewing! :)  
><em>ShortCourt1336: <em>Hello, Courtney ;)  
><em>TheSouthViet: <em>Thank you so much! Your feedback is wonderful to hear – and it's always great to get a new reviewer!  
><em>Melody: <em>Thanks so much! It's quite alright that you don't have an account yet; I don't mind. I'm glad you check for updates, though, instead of forgetting :)  
><em>misslaurajones:<em> It's okay. It's not your fault, right? ;) And thank you for the kind words!

Alright, I just wanted to say that I don't own Indiana Jones or any related characters, and the song at the beginning is by Britney Spears, not me.

This chapter was pretty much fluff... heeheehee. You all knew it was bound to come sometime, even if I'm not the best at writing it. Plus, the ending was kind of... well... you read it. You know. Anyways, although people like how I write in the style of the adventures (i.e. not entirely fluff) I just had to put it in this chapter. Next part, we will get into the real action.

I'm seriously considering making the chapters a _lot _shorter; these things are super long. I'm almost entirely convinced that I'm going to make things about 2000 words now, instead of over 4000 every time. They take a long time to read – and write. So I'd like to do a vote: if you think I should stay with the long chapters, just say so, and if you'd like me to write shorter chapters that don't take so long to read, please, please say so in a review! I'd like to know what my readers think – and this goes to everyone, not just the people who regularly review! Thank you so much, guys!

See that pretty little review button down there? Please press it and tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your comments, and no flames please!

Thank you so much for reading!  
>- Lexi Blaze<p> 


	5. Maneater

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 5: _Maneater_

_Make you fall real hard in love/she's a Maneater, make you work hard/make you spend hard/make you want all of her love_

XxXxX

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

I honestly had no idea what to think of Femi and Jafari. On the outside, they definitely looked like screwballs; I mean, come on. Descendants of Cleopatra? Really? Sure, I had been mistaken for a descendant of Pandora from the Greek myths, but that wasn't true – I think. All the same, these two young Egyptians were trying to wrestle power out of a country's grasp, and they sure as hell weren't going to do it with no more than forty supporters and claims that probably had no fact behind them.

I didn't know what to make of their demand to help us, either. Did they really have information on the Sons of Talib, or were they just making it up? If they did know a thing or two, they would be well worth our time. But otherwise…

I didn't really like nineteen-year-old Femi. She acted really rude. The girl made it seem like I was inferior to her; as if she was a princess and I was a peasant. She actually tried ordering me to do a thing or two for her on the walk back to Fayah's. Of course, I refused, reminding myself silently that I couldn't just send her back to the square of the Old Quarter just because she was bugging me. It would be Indiana's choice whether or not these two strange people should be included in our travels. I knew it would be a risky investment – when you're Indiana Jones, you can trust no one. But he's had experience in this sort of thing, so he would know if Jafari and Femi were fake or legit.

Jafari seemed nice enough. He was quiet, and although he was two years older than his sister, she was definitely his superior. It seemed to me that Femi liked to take control of everything she could. But Jafari seemed to have all the manners of the duo. He started chatting with me softly and kindly as we walked back to Fayah's place. I discovered that although he was the opposite of outspoken, he was rather intelligent, and had many great ideas on a variety of subjects, including what he would do if he was pharaoh. I tried to steer the conversation away from that rather awkward subject, though.

At one point, I asked him if Jafari was the name everyone used for him. "No," he responded quietly, and I had to lean in to catch his shy response, "some people call me Jafar. But my more common nickname is Alfie."

"Alfie? That name doesn't really have anything to do with 'Jafari…'"

He shrugged. "It is my nickname. I did not choose it; Femi did. So please just call me Alfie; I prefer it to my formal name. If we end up going on this trip together, then we must become friends, and to do so, you must call me by my nickname."

"Alright, Alfie, but only if you call me Madie instead of Madison," I winked. Catching Mutt glancing at us jealously while Femi talked his ear off, I rolled my eyes at the greaser. There was absolutely no reason to be jealous.

We arrived at Fayah's place soon enough and I reluctantly knocked on the door. Indiana opened it up, took one look at the new faces standing behind his son and me, and then uttered one word: "No."

"Hello," Femi suddenly said, stepping forward and cutting off my line of vision. "My name is Femi, and this is my brother Jafari. We are descendants of Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt, and we are here to help you."

"And how do you suppose you're going to do that?" Indiana grumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"We have information on the Sons of Talib."

Indy's eyes widened slightly. "Madie and Mutt? Inside. Now."

We shuffled forward sheepishly, as if we were two children caught with our hands in the cookie jar. Mutt's father pulled us into the corner of the entrance hallway and turned with his back facing Femi and Alfie so that they couldn't hear what he was saying.

"Have you two been going around telling all of Egypt about our current situation?" he said in his deep voice, glaring at the two of us. I suddenly felt very, very short compared to the hulking archaeologist and his rather tall son. I may not have been vertically challenged, but I was still a lot smaller than the two of them.

"No," Mutt started. "The two Egyptians outside were just randomly talking to us when they mentioned the Sons of Talib and Ramla; I thought it might be a good idea to introduce them to you, just in case they really know something and could be helpful."

Indy grumbled under his breath, the wrinkles on his leathery skin standing out in the dim lighting. He looked like an angry dog, debating whether or not to grab the juicy bone from his owner's hands.

"Please, Indy? I think they night actually know something, but they'll only tell us if we agree to let them help," I whined. I didn't really understand why I was pleading their case; it's not like I wanted Femi to be anywhere me. But Jafari - I mean Alfie - was nice, and I understood how important it was to everyone that we had to get Sallah back. So, since we had the chance of getting a lead, why not take it, no matter the risk? No one would ever get anywhere in life without risks.

Indiana frowned again. "What if they're working _with_ the Sons of Talib? We don't know these people at all, and we don't know if they have ulterior motives. They'll just slow us down, and what if their information is useless? What if they don't even _have_ information? I don't want to have to watch over two extra bodies on this trip. Just trying to keep my own family - mainly my son - under control is hard enough. Plus, we've already got Madie to watch over, and she'd not even my child. The Egyptians might not be cut out for this sort of work - Madie, no offense, but you hardly are either - and they might be killed faster than you can say Benny's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt."

He stopped to take a breath, and Mutt cut in. "But all those disadvantages pale in comparison to the fact that _they might have important information_. Do you want to rescue Sallah or not?"

"Now, that's not fair," Indy growled, pointing one stubbly finger at his son's chest, before waving it around in his face. "Of course I want to find Sallah."

"They why not take the chance?" I asked in a light voice, taking hold of Mutt's hand and lacing his fingers through mine; we held our entwined hands behind Mutt's back where Indiana couldn't see. "They said that they know where the Sons of Talib headquarters are, and they know what they're planning on doing in order to catch Ramla. Isn't that enough? And, at least it's proof that they're actually _searching_ for Ramla. It could mean we're on the right track. Up until now, everything has just been guesswork. Wouldn't it be nice to get some solid information for once?"

"Yeah," Indiana agreed, "but isn't it rather suspicious that they won't give us the information unless they come on the adventure with us? I mean, why? Why would they want to do that?"

Mutt and I exchanged glances, and my greaser squeezed my hand, but neither of us said anything. We knew why they wanted to come: it was because they wanted to be noticed, and they wanted to do something good for their nation, just so that they could get more followers - and 'take their rightful place on the throne, as leaders and pharaohs of Egypt.' We didn't tell Indiana all this, though, because if we did, we would have to explain about how they thought they were descendants of Cleopatra, and how they wanted to become rulers of Egypt. For obvious reasons, that would make them seem like fools, and then there would be no way that Indy would let them come with us on the adventure. He wouldn't believe anything they said, he wouldn't trust them, and he most certainly wouldn't think they were telling the truth, or even had any information. Sure, Femi may have introduced herself as a descendant of the great woman pharaoh, but Indiana hadn't really seemed to take notice, which was a stroke of luck for us.

So in response, we just shrugged simultaneously and looked at him with innocent stares. He sighed and scratched his forehead, which was currently wrinkled as he tried to think through the very little amount of info we had given him.

The world-famous archaeologist turned back to look at Femi and Alfie, who both stood in the doorway. Alfie was politely ignoring us, but Femi, on the other hand, was leaning into the house, her long hair trailing over her shoulder. She was trying to listen in on our conversation, and when Indiana caught her staring at us, she stood up straight and flashed him a bright smile. He scrunched up his nose a bit and turned back towards us.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about that girl," he said under his breath. Indy was speaking so softly that Mutt and I could barely hear him, and we had to lean in the catch what he was saying. "What if she's another traitor, like James?"

My breath caught in my throat at the mention of James. He had been my first love, and I had gone out with him a couple years ago, before he moved to England. By coincidence, I had met him again on my search for Pandora's Box, and I had fallen for the preppy all over again. James had seemed perfect - and familiar - in every way. He was a solid rock that I had clung to when everything else around me was shifting, changing, and becoming a new lifestyle that was terrifying, unfamiliar and exciting. That was when I was just beginning to realize my feelings for Mutt.

But James had changed, too, just like my life had in those few weeks. He wasn't who he said he was. The preppy had secretly been working for the Russians - our enemies - the entire time we had been putting our confidences in him. He was a double agent. And although we had all fallen for his act, I had fallen hardest. Even though he was now dead, the memory of him still left a gaping hole in me.

It wasn't the fact that he was dead and I had lost someone close to me that left the hole. It was the fact that I had trusted him and he had betrayed me. It proved that everything wasn't as it seemed, and the world was a harsher place than we had learned in school. People did cruel things every day, and most of the time, there was no one there to stop them.

Mostly, though, the hole was there because James' betrayal had been the final nail in the coffin – the final thing that had sealed my fate. I wasn't going back to my normal life, and I would continue having adventures with the Joneses.

Mutt understood why I felt what I did, although he didn't particularly like it, and he was a bit jealous. All the same, he cleared his throat at his father's words and gave him a look that clearly said _don't go there, Gramps, _and he did it for my sake_._

"So what if she is? The brother is trustworthy. I can just tell - intuition, right?" my greaser said, sending a glance over Indy's shoulder at the two Egyptians. "And, I may be new to this, but I don't think our luck is bad enough for us to include a traitor in our group _twice in a row_."

"Are you kidding, Mutt? We can't take any chances. What if someone gets killed, or hurt, just because we weren't careful enough?"

"What if _Sallah_ gets killed, or hurt, just because we didn't jump when we had the chance to find information on his possible whereabouts?"

"You're not playing fair, Junior. You're trying to guilt me into this, and it's making me angry. I'm not going to listen to two amateur's whims and fantasies, so shut your mouth."

"Harsh, old man."

"Don't call me old man."

"Don't call me Junior."

Mutt stared his father down, a cocky grin on his face, but Indy wasn't going to let up in his argument anytime soon. "I'll say it one more time: it's too risky."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Mutt growled. I could sense a fight coming. "We won't get anywhere if we don't risk anything."

"We're risking all of our lives just by being here!" Indy shouted.

Sighing, I interrupted. "Girls, please! Make your minds up already!" I yelled over their heated stares, which were suddenly turned on me. Shrinking back into the shadows, I smiled sheepishly, but I wasn't about to take it back.

Turning back to his father, Mutt's glare intensified, and his dangerous greaser side started to show through. "Why won't you just listen to me for once? You always ignore me, and you never pay any attention to me. You hardly even ask me for my opinion when we talk about anything! You're always trying to control me!"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Indy raged. By now, Femi and Alfie could probably hear everything without even trying to listen in. Hell, all of Egypt could probably hear us.

That included Marion. She bounded down the stairs from where she had been in the kitchen on the second four, but before she reached our little group, Mutt lashed out at his father again. "I'm just saying that for once, you should listen to me! _I actually have something important to say!_ And maybe you could try out a little thing called 'praise,' too! I'm your only son, after all! You may as well _pretend_ to appreciate me."

"You're my only son? All I see in front of me is a little girl, and Madie."

"_BOYS!"_ Marion shouted over their yells, coming to stand between them with her hands on her hips, kitchen apron still around her waist and a whisk still in her hand. "What the devil are you two yelling about? What is going on?"

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we were about to do things the Jones family way.

"He started it!" both Henrys shouted at the same time, pointing at one another. Aggravated, Mutt pulled out his hair comb and ran it through his greased locks. He had let go of my hand long ago, and I was now standing just behind him on his left.

"Me? How did I start it?" Mutt spat.

"You started it by being born," Indiana shouted, his face beet-red. I wanted to roll my eyes. Was that really his best comeback? I understood that he had probably learned it from one of his students, but really? It seemed so out of place in the elder man's mouth.

"It's your fault I was born!" my greaser retorted. "If you and Mom hadn't-"

"_THAT'S ENOUGH!_" Marion shouted, waving the whisk around. "I'm giving you two permission to shut up now."

Both men shut up.

"Now," she said, running a hand through her hair, "can one of you _calmly_ explain to me what is happening, without the other one interrupting?"

Mutt hurriedly told her the story of Femi and Alfie, leaving out the parts about how we had met them and how they thought they were descendants of Cleopatra.

My greaser's mother turned towards the door and seemed to notice the two Egyptians standing there for the first time. She shook her head at her two boys: "Your yelling just embarrassed us in front of these people. Mutt and Indy? What do you say to them?"

"Sorry," they both mumbled an apology, staring at their feet. Mutt's face and neck were bright red in embarrassment, and the color disappeared under his leather jacket's collar.

I felt bad about it, but I found the whole thing rather amusing. Mutt and Indiana's bickering was just like a couple toddlers fighting over their favourite toys, and Marion was the peacekeeper.

"Now. What do you say to each other?"

The men muttered apologies again, but this time their words were definitely a lot more forced. I couldn't help it - I let loose a snigger. But one look from Marion shut me up real quick. Who knew she had that kind of effect on people?

"Now, how are we going to solve this argument?" she said in quieter tones, but it wasn't because she was no longer trying to control them or because she was angry; it was because she didn't want the Egyptians in the doorway to hear her. "Are we going to trust them or not?"

I blew a strand of hair out of my face as I looked at the two men, who were still having a silent stare-down. I took Mutt's hand gently in mine again, signalling for him to _let go of the argument with Indiana._

My greaser looked down at me, and I got lost in his eyes. He wanted to win. He wanted to win the fight, but he didn't want to keep fighting. The corners of my mouth twitched; the hint of a frown. He finally looked back up at his father.

Mutt had opened his mouth, about to say something, when suddenly there was a loud gasp from the direction of the door. Everyone turned to see Femi and Alfie being held against their will by two Egyptian men dressed all in black. With horror, I realized they were the same two men who had followed me and Mutt around campus at the university back home. My greaser realized this at about the same time as I did, and he stepped in front of me protectively, shielding my body with his and blocking me from the view of the men.

A third man stepped into the house. His tall, foreboding figure cast shadows around the Arabic room. "Dr. Jones?" he asked in a deep, heavily accented and rough voice. "Come with us quietly, please, and make sure your family comes quickly after you – and we will do you no harm."

XxXxX

Hey guys! How's life going? I hope you're all doing well :D

I'm sorry this chapter was so slow. Pretty much, the entire thing was Mutt and Indiana's fight. So, it may not be the best 'comeback chapter,' but I'm _still_ trying to get all the facts into place (jeez, how long is this gonna take?). Next chapter is when the real story/action begins - I promise. I've already got it all planned out ;P

Sadly enough, I don't own Indiana Jones or any related characters - just the plot, my ideas and my OCs. And the song at the beginning isn't mine either - it's 'Maneater' by Nelly Furtado. I don't know why, but I sort of consider it to be Femi's theme song. Of course, so far she's had a rather small part... so it's not like you'll understand why. Yet ;)

Do you guys know what _would_ speed up the updates, though? A review! Unbelievable thanks to all who have alerted this story and added it to your favourites list. I really, really love you guys, and I do this for you, as you very well know. And as always, special thanks to the beautiful people who reviewed: _Fenestra, James Birdsong, Melody, Lydily, MandaPanda89, ParfaitFille, misslaurajones, merlincrazy, IFoundHopeInYourHateForMe _and _ReaganAdler._ You guys make my day :) and it's always nice to hear from you!

Review responses to:

_**Fenestra**__:_ I couldn't agree more :) and thank you for the praise! I love hearing from new people.  
><em><strong>MandaPanda89<strong>_: I hope you don't mind that I continued to write the chapters long; I just decided that it's the style I started with, so I may as well continue with it. In some of my other stories, I'll probably do shorter chapters. And thanks for responding to my apology; I'm glad you think so! :)  
><em><strong>Lydily<strong>_: I suppose that means you'll continue to review? *wink wink* But seriously, thank you so much! J'espere que je ne vous deçois pas avec les deux nouveaux personnes; j'ai des grands plans pour eux ;) It's quite alright if it takes you a while to get to the PM – trust me, I understand _completely _what you mean about life getting in the way. And I'm glad you're okay with waiting; I'm sorry it has to happen so often! Anyway, thanks a ton for the comments :)  
><em><strong>Melody<strong>_: Hey! It's always nice to hear from you. I'm sorry that I make it rather difficult for you to check back, since I hardly ever update (or so it seems). Anyways, thank you so much for the generous praise! I'm glad you liked that chapter; I'm not the best at writing romance, but I try ;) And as you wished, I've decided to stay with the longer chapters. Your point was a valid one.  
><em><strong>ReaganAdler<strong>_: Oh wow, I can't believe you're still reading :) it's absolutely fantastic! And thank you for continuing to review. I hope your exams went well - and welcome back to ! Haha. Anyways, your words were like an early Christmas present. It means a lot to me to hear you say that you like how their relationship is going. I guess I just decided to do it because it's unexpected (what with Mutt being a greaser and all; I think it also kind of gives him a bit more depth), and you don't read many fanfics with relationships like that. And nothing can compare to you saying that you could see this as a movie :) that is truly the highest praise an author can get. Thank you so much!  
><em><strong>James<strong>_ _**Birdsong**_: Thank you so much! It's great to hear from new people, and I'm glad you're enjoying this story. I've worked hard on it.  
><em><strong>Merlincrazy<strong>_: I'm glad you liked it! And once again, I'm sorry for the wait; hopefully the rest of this story can make it up to you ;) I've missed you guys!  
><em><strong>Misslaurajones<strong>_: I certainly hope this update pleased you! And I agree, I love the MuttxMadie fluff. It's fun to write.  
><em><strong>ParfaitFille<strong>_: Thank you so much for your kind words! Sorry that the update was later than expected, and I hope you don't mind that I'm going to continue with the long chapters. I'll just be easier for me, although the updates won't be as frequent as they would be if the chapters were shorter. Oh well :)  
><em><strong>IFoundHopeInYourHateForMe<strong>_: I certainly hope you enjoy what I've just posted, and I hope you'll like the rest of the story! It's great to hear from you, and I just wanted to say that it was quite high praise to hear that my MuttxMadie pairing was awesome :) I hope that you people like them as a couple, haha! But seriously - thank you. It's wonderful to hear from new people :)

Now I'm going to stop whining to you guys and I'm going to write and plan some more! What will happen next? Only I know ;D

**-Alexa Blaze**


	6. Enchanted

**A/N: **While I may have excuses for not updating in over a month, I won't bore you with them, since the list goes on and on. But at least let me say that I am deeply sorry for making you wait so long, and for not updating! Life has been hectic. I bet you're all sick of me and my excuses and my late posts by now. Oh, well. Just know that I really am truly sorry, and I feel pretty bad about it all.

It has come to my attention that my Author's Notes have been getting longer... and longer... and longer... and longer... I'm sure you know what I mean. So I'm going to start trying to make them shorter from now on. Enough rambling on my part.

I don't own Indiana Jones – if I did, the new movie would already be out, and Madie would be in it :D There are pictures of her on my profile, if you want to check them out. Also, I don't own the song at the beginning, which is _Enchanted _by Taylor Swift. And, can I just say that this song is bloody _amazing? _It has to be my favourite song _ever_. I love it almost as much as Garfield loves lasagne.

Just a short recap of the last chapter: Mutt and Madie dragged Femi and Alfie (Jafari) back to Sallah's, because the two Egyptians said they had information about the Sons of Talib (the suspected kidnappers of Sallah) and Ramla (the suspected Egyptian artifact he was after). Mutt and Indiana got into a fight, and three men in black – Sons of Talib – have appeared at the door, holding guns to Femi and Alfie's heads and threatening to shoot if Indy and company don't 'come along with them.'

Please be kind and leave a review; I don't know if I deserve them anymore, considering that I practically abandoned everyone, but it's a nice gesture. Feed this penniless author with your kind words – no flames, please! Anonymous reviews are accepted... and I'm starting to think reviews make me _way _more excited than they should :) Thanks to everyone who is reading this story and to everyone who has added it to their Favourite or Alert lists, but _extra _thanks to the following people who left reviews: _IFoundHopeInYourHateForMe, x XRoweenaJAugustineX x, camilia85560, merlincrazy, Melody, ks90, yourestupidish01, _and _ReaganAdler_! You guys make my world go round :D Review responses are at the bottom!

-Alexa Blaze

Without further ado, here is the long-awaited chapter 6 of...

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 6: _Enchanted_

_Please don't be in love with someone else/please don't have somebody waiting on you/this night is sparkling, don't you let it go/I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home_

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

I didn't know how we were going to get out of this one.

The men weren't smiling, but that didn't mean they weren't pleased that they had 'captured' us so quickly. We hadn't even gotten a chance to defend ourselves – we had been standing there arguing like children! And even though Marion had made Mutt and Indiana apologize to each other, I was sure that they would still be glaring daggers – if the strange men in black, who I supposed were Sons of Talib agents, hadn't arrived.

The room was silent for a few minutes before the big man with the gun stepped closer to us. He seemed to be the leader, and once again, he repeated his demand: "Come with us quickly, Jones, and make sure your family follows – if you do so, we shall not hurt you."

_Like hell you won't, _I thought sarcastically. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes.

To my surprise, Indiana complied with the man's wishes. "Let's go," he grumbled, grabbing Marion's upper arm and dragging her over to the front door. I looked at him in bewilderment, but he motioned for Mutt and me to follow, so, taking my greaser's hand, I reluctantly left the room with them.

Femi and Alfie, the two Egyptians we had accidentally dragged into this, stared with wide, fear-filled eyes. They were quickly ushered out after us, as well. The thought that maybe they were working for these men and had alerting the Sons of Talib to our presence in Egypt briefly crossed my mind, but I squashed it down. If they had, why were they now being threatened and held hostage with us?

We were loaded into the back of a big tan-coloured truck as if we were cargo, and the two men who had stalked Mutt and I back in the States climbed in after, to keep an eye on us. The leader crawled into the passenger seat of the truck, and a driver who was already in the car waiting started the engine. There was a wooden board separating the part of the truck we were in and the part that the driver was in; I couldn't see or hear him or the man in the passenger seat. The truck had a canopy over top of it made of rough, tan-coloured canvas and a door in back, so that no one would see us in there as we drove through Cairo. The light was dim, and I hesitantly crawled over to Mutt and sat beside him for reassurance.

After a while, my eyes adjusted to the gloom. Our group of six, plus the two guards, were the only things in the back. They hadn't bothered to tie us up; instead, the door of the truck was locked and bolted from the outside. We were stuck in there.

But our kidnappers had obviously forgotten something – we were travelling with _Indiana Jones._

We had been driving for roughly an hour when Indy had finally finished his escape plan in his mind and put it into action. He motioned with his hand for us all to be quiet, and then he lunged at one of the guards, punching him across the jaw with his fist. The guard went reeling backward and crashed heavily into the locked door of the truck, but Indiana pounced again and kneed the man where it hurts most.

Not one to be left out, Mutt joined in on the fight. He pried the second guard, who had been trying to attack Indy, off his father. With a grunt, the two men started to roll around on the floor, crushing me between them and the canopy wall, which was simply made of cloth, so it bent to suit my form.

Marion and I would have gladly joined in the fight, but there was nothing to fight _with _except our fists. All the same, that wasn't about to stop us. Marion joined Indiana in pummelling the short guard, and I backhanded Mutt's opponent on the nose, just as my greaser had taught me. Blow started to flow freely, and when the tall guard screwed up his eyes to look down the bridge of his nose, Mutt used the man's hesitation to his advantage and pinned him to the floor.

Femi and Alfie just sat in the corner, staring around in terror. _Well, geez, thanks for helping. Remind me why we brought you along again?_

Once Indiana and Marion had overpowered the first guard, and Mutt and I were firmly sitting on the second, we stopped to take a short breather. Indiana had a little bit of blood on the side of his temple (which he quickly wiped away), and Mutt's knuckles were raw, scraped and bloody, but otherwise we were unharmed.

Although Indiana and Mutt were still kind of mad at each other, Indy smiled at his son. "Good job, Junior."

"Don't call me that," my greaser mumbled. "Besides, my name isn't Henry Jones _Junior._ That's your name. I'm Henry Jones _III. _There's a difference, old man."

Indy shrugged. "Same difference," he grumbled. "Gimme you pocket knife."

"What?" Mutt asked, completely taken aback by this sudden turn of events.

"You know. The stiletto knife you're always playing with and flipping around."

"Why?" my greaser asked incredulously.

"Do you want to get out of here, or not?" I could tell Indiana would have yelled, but he refrained from doing so because we didn't want to raise attention from the two thugs in the front seat.

Mutt silently and reluctantly passed over his prized pocketknife, glaring as he did so. The two were still a bit angry at one another, and I saw Marion roll her eyes as she realized this.

Indiana stepped over the guard who he had knocked out cold and raised the knife to the edge of the tough canvas. He slit a vertical line down it, not unlike the way Mutt had slit the back of the pictures with the three cats. Once the tear in the 'wall' was almost as long as Indy himself, he used his hands to rip it open wider.

I looked out the hole. The desert ground below us was speeding along at an impossibly fast rate; my heart thudded heavily in my chest when I thought about jumping out, as we were obviously going to do. We had no other choice. It was either this, or going along with our kidnappers. And we would have to jump out the tear in the canvas because the back door was padlocked.

The hole was barely wide enough for one of us to get through because of the wires that supported it on either side; still, it would be enough. As Indy passed the knife back to Mutt, who pocketed it hastily before pulling out his hair comb and running it through his greased locks, I looked outside again. The sand was billowing up in a cloud above us, and a little ways away to the west, I could see a small town. It was obvious we weren't going to the town; we sped right past it on a dirt road leading somewhere else. I knew the town was in the west because the sun was setting; the warm, bitter winter night of Egypt was fast approaching.

"Okay, we're going to have to jump to escape. Since we're in the middle of the desert," Indiana started, and we huddled around him as warm air from outside started to seep through the hole into the back of the truck, "there won't be any soft landing spots like grass, or something. So, when – and if – you see a sand dune, try to jump into that. You want to jump before the spot, because the car will be moving. Hopefully, you'll land on your spot." He took a deep breath, and then continued in his deep voice. "Jump like this, and angle your body forwards and to the side. Keep your head tucked in and your arms tight to your body, and don't forget to roll upon impact to lessen the possible amount of damage. Oh, and jump facing the direction the truck is moving." When he said 'jump like this,' he held his arms in to himself, against his chest, palms in, as if he was hugging himself.

I shifted nervously from foot to foot. It looked easy in movies, but it didn't seem easy now. Especially not with the hard road racing along underfoot at a pace so fast it was a blur.

"I'll go last," Indiana said. "We have to go quickly so we won't be too separated when we land. As soon as you're out of the car, head for that village." He waved to the far-off town that was quickly receding into the distance. "Don't look back. If they somehow figure out we're escaping, you've got to keep running. I'll try and hold them off if that happens, but no guarantees. And _no waiting for anyone,_" he looked plainly at Mutt and me at this point. "Now, when you jump, be quiet. We can't alert them to our escape."

I nodded, as terror crept its way up my throat. I found myself wondering, not for the first time that evening, _what have I gotten myself in to?_

"Marion!" Indy barked. "You go first. I know I told no one to wait, but I want you to make sure everyone is okay after jumping. You're the only exception. And if anyone gets hurt, can you help them?" Indiana's wife nodded. I noticed that Marion was a little pale.

"Indy," she started, "I've heard stories of people _dying _when they jump from cars-"

"Not now," her husband growled, and I caught him glance worriedly in my direction, almost as if he was afraid I would faint or something at the mention of this fact.

Marion sighed, and then climbed up onto the ledge where the canvas rip ended. "Here goes nothing," she said grimly, with a tight-lipped smile. And then she was gone; she had simply disappeared. I didn't even see her jump.

"You two," Indiana waved Femi and Alfie over. "Go. Now."

"Um..." Femi was shaking. "I'm okay; I think I'll stay here..."

"Nonsense," Alfie said quietly, glancing at his sister. "We have no choice. If we want to survive... who knows what these men will do to us?"

Femi shook her head, but Alfie pushed her to the rip in the cloth. "Promise you'll come right after me, Femi," he said, and she nodded.

Alfie climbed up onto the railing – but his decent was decidedly less graceful than Marion's. Just as he was about to jump, Femi tripped over God-knows-what and stuck her hands out, trying to catch something to keep from falling. She accidentally fell into Alfie and pushed him forwards, and he went flailing out of the truck. At least the poor man had the decency to remain silent.

I gasped. That had _not _been a jump like the ones Indiana had instructed us on. What if he had gotten hurt?

Femi jumped out afterwards, and I was appalled to see that she did it perfectly and gracefully, without a word about her 'trip' and the clumsy jump of her brother. I exchanged a confused glance with Mutt, but he just shrugged.

"Up you go, doll," he said, trying to help me onto the ledge, but I swatted his hand away. I could do it myself – I didn't need a man to help me. Jeez, sometimes he acted like I was still a paper-shaker.

"I'll be right behind you," Mutt said, kissing me lightly on the cheek. I turned to see worry in his eyes – worry that something terrible would happen, and that I wouldn't get out of this okay.

I couldn't allow room in my brain for hesitation, though, so I turned away – and jumped. I did everything the way Indiana said I should – arms and head in, jumping away from the truck and rolling upon impact (like a ninja)... but nothing would have prepared me for the bone-jarring impact of hitting the moving ground.

I landed on my knees on the hard sand and let out an unfeminine 'oof,' before my knees buckled forward and I rolled over in a somersault. My jaw felt like it had been pushed up through my skull, and my knees felt disconnected. Already I could feel bruises forming on my arms and I continued to roll down a sand dune. At one point in my ridiculous somersaults, I managed to stop and stand up, but my legs were shaking too much and they collapsed under me. I continued to roll, sand getting in my hair, mouth, nose and eyes. Finally, I reached the bottom of the dune and lay sneezing on my back.

All of my bones felt displaced, and my organs felt like they had been squished and then stretched. Jumping out of the car had hurt. _A lot. _It hurt so much I was starting to doubt whether or not that had been the right idea; maybe we should have just stayed in the car. As I lay gasping for breath, one word kept repeating itself in my mind; the best word to describe the experience: _jarring. _It felt as if an electrical current had been shot through my body.

"Madie?"

I looked up and saw Marion standing at the top of the dune, looking down on me. She looked relatively fine, if not for a few bumps, and the sand coating her body, just like me.

I smiled up at her, but my teeth felt unreal. As if they were fakes. I slowly clenched and unclenched my jaw, before spitting the sand out. Marion smiled back and scrambled down to help me up.

My whole body was sore, and my legs were still shaking. Not only did my bones hurt, but now that I was moving, my muscles did, too. I knew it was nothing compared to the pain I would feel tomorrow morning, though.

In a very motherly fashion, she started to brush the sand off my clothing after she had helped me to stand, as I sneezed once more. My shoulder muscles hurt an awful lot; I felt stiff and sore. Suddenly, we heard scuffling at the top of the dune, and we looked up.

"Madie," Mutt breathed a sigh of relief, standing at the top and outlined by the setting sun. "And Mom. Thank God you guys are okay."

"What happened to _you?"_ Marion asked harshly.

Mutt's face and the parts of his skin that weren't covered in clothing were bruised, cut, and slashed. Grimacing in pain, Mutt slid down into the bottom of the sand dune.

"I... didn't _aim _for a place to land, like Gramps said. I ended up jumping right onto the road, where there just so happen to be rocks and potholes and rusty nails," he grimaced again. I ran over to him, ignoring my creaking and protesting joints and limbs, and gave my greaser a big hug, sliding my arms up under the back of his leather jacket and running my fingers over his tense back muscles, which I could feel through his shirt. If Mutt was a cat, he would have purred.

Marion sighed. "You need to be more careful... one day, you'll be killed," she sighed. Her son just grinned.

"I thought I told you all not to wait around," a gruff voice came from above, and I looked up for the third time to see Indiana Jones, in all his glory, standing at the top of the dune. He was smiling, though, and looking down at us with a mixed expression of relief and pride.

"I sent Femi and Alfie off already," Marion said, a bit defensively, as she climbed up the dune to place a quick kiss on her husband's lips. Indiana looked better than all of us; the only injury he seemed to have gained was a small bruise above his eyebrow that was already visible, and the cut on his temple from the fight with the guard. "Alfie was toting a broken wrist, I think; I saw his jump. He looked like a penguin trying to fly, not someone jumping from a car."

"Femi pushed him," I said, as I climbed up the dune to join them, Mutt scurrying after. "She made it look like a trip, but I don't think it was. She pushed her brother out."

"Why would she do that?" Marion asked, genuinely confused. "And do you think they tipped those guys off to our presence in Egypt?"

Indiana shook his head. "I think they're innocent," he said slowly. "You can see it in their eyes, and in the little things they do. Also, the thugs who kidnapped us didn't show any signs of recognition when they saw them."

"But what if they're like James?" Mutt asked, ignoring the way I flinched when he said his name.

Indiana shook his head. "I knew, deep down, James was a double-crosser from the start – I just never acted on my feelings of unease. With these two, it's different. You're right, Henry; they may have important information. If they don't want to abandon us yet, we'll let them come along."

Mutt grinned. "Ha! I knew it!" he fist-pumped. I rolled my eyes and grabbed one of his fists, curling his fingers out so I could hold his hand.

"This doesn't mean you won the argument, Henry," Indiana growled, his expression dark. "All the things I said before still apply; they're still true."

Mutt calmed down almost instantly.

I glanced at the road. The truck was still speeding away, completely oblivious to our escape. I wondered how long it would take the guards to wake up and alert the driver we had escaped.

"Let's go," I murmured, not wanting to stand around any longer. In the distance, I could see Femi and Alfie's receding figures, heading towards the town. The sun had almost set, and once it did, the sky would become unbelievably dark. I didn't want to hang around to find out just _how _inky-black the night sky would become, though.

We set off at a half-run, half-walk. The town wasn't as far away as I had first thought, but it was still pretty distant; a twenty-minute jog got us close enough to see that there were still people walking around in the town. There seemed to be a late-night open-roofed market going on; shouts and laughs rang out across the desert.

We stumbled into the town a few minutes later. Femi was waiting for us, but Alfie was nowhere to be seen. "He was taken to a small hospital in the town center," she explained in her heavy accent. "It is too bad that he fell. I wish he had listened more to Doctor Jones on how to jump."

Wait, what? Did she magically forget that she had 'tripped' and _pushed _him? Or did she think we hadn't noticed? Something was a bit off with this girl... but as Indy said, I got the feeling she _wasn't _working for the bad guys. No, it seemed as if she was more... selfish than that. And in quite a few ways, that could possibly be more dangerous.

Indiana quickly located a small Arabian motel with vacancy. The owners were pleased to finally get business, and they gave us their best rooms at a rather low price. They even sent Mutt some healing slaves and bandages for his cuts.

I helped clean his wounds as Indiana and Marion went to scope out the town, and Femi went to check on her brother. My greaser and I sat in silence, until I posed a question that had been on my mind for a long, long time – since the start of our relationship. It had only arisen to the front of my mind when he had mentioned James. It was a completely irrelevant question to anything else that was going on, but I had to know.

"Mutt," I asked slowly, not looking at his eyes and pretending to be completely engrossed in a cut on his temple, "have you ever had any... girlfriends... before? I mean... have you ever been in love before?"

A deep rumble sounded in his chest; he was chuckling. "Why do you want to know, doll?"

"Well... you know my dating history. I mean, you know I went out with Chase-" Mutt growled a bit at the name; Chase had almost killed Mutt by running him over with a car, and he had destroyed Mutt's motorcycle "-for two years, and that I went out with James for two years, and even fell in love with him... and then I went out with Brian for a month, but he was a real nosebleed, so we hardly even talked, and I went out with Daniel in grade 8. So I was wondering what your dating history was?" I tried to keep my voice indifferent.

Mutt chuckled again. "Men don't keep track of their 'list of girlfriends' like chicks do, babe. You won't even know any of the girls; I only moved to Bedford in the summer, and you're the only girl I've gone out with since moving, baby." He twisted around, trying to reach my lips for a kiss, but I pulled away, giving him a warning look. For extra measure, I started to rub the sand out of the cut on his temple with extra force.

He winced, but went back to being a good patient. After a few tense moments, though, my greaser spoke up again. "Yeah, I've had a couple girlfriends. There was Marie, who I went steady with for three weeks before we broke up... but then again, that was grade one..." I rolled my eyes.

"Any _real _girlfriends?"

"Marie was real!"

"You know what I mean!"

"Oh," he sighed, staring out the window. "Yeah, okay, doll. Well, I went out with Tracey for a week... Stephanie for three weeks... Emma for three and a half... Alexis for ten days... Anna for four weeks, she was a real keeper... Millie for an entire month, now, that girl was _hot-"_

"MUTT!" I yelled, digging into his cut a little deeper. He yelped in pain, almost jumping off the bed, but I forced him back into a sitting position with one knee. "I mean _serious_ relationships..." I said. It kind of boiled my blood to hear him talk about how hot 'Millie' was. Although I didn't know the girl, Mutt was _my _boyfriend now, and I couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy. "You were quite the womanizer, weren't you?"

He grinned, obviously not noticing the anger in my voice. "Oh, yeah. I would bring them home for dinner, too – Mom approved of every one of them except Zoë, which is too bad, Zoë had big-"

"_MUTT!"_

"-eyes, I was going to say eyes!" he hastily covered up.

"I supposed you shagged every one of them, too?" I asked, jealousy and anger seeping through my words.

"Yea- wait, what? No! No no no no no! Wait a minute, I mean... wait, what?"

I sighed.

"Um..." Mutt said, and I could tell by his tone of voice that he had _finally _clued in to the fact that he was making me upset. Stupid, arrogant greaser... "Serious relationships? Well, um... you..."

I sighed again. I almost didn't want to hear it. He was acting kind of brain-dead.

"There was only one other girl who I ever fell in love with," he said quietly, and I almost didn't hear.

"Who?" I asked, although it wasn't like I would know the girl.

"Her name was Miranda, but everyone called her Randy," Mutt mumbled, afraid that I would be angry because of this, too. I mean, I _was _kind of angry now, but just hearing her name wasn't going to make my fury any worse. The expression 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' came to mind. "She was a greaser... well, as close as girls could get to greasers... and we went out for an entire year, which was a record for me... hell, two months was a record... but then she dumped me. For a preppy. Who didn't even like her back," Mutt said, and I couldn't name the emotion I heard in his voice. Anger? Frustration? Contempt? Annoyance? Betrayal? Sadness? Regret?

At least this explained one of the reasons he hated preppies.

I sat back on my heels, done with bandaging his wounds. My anger had evaporated when I had heard the sadness in his voice. He was rather upset over all of it... "When was this?" I found myself asking.

"When I was seventeen and eighteen years old. It ended in March, actually," he said, looking down at his hands. Mutt pulled out his switchblade and started flipping it around, biting his lip. I lay back on the bed; Mutt and I were sharing a room together (_what _had possessed Marion and Indiana to actually let us do that, though, I had no idea).

I felt... kind of empty when I heard Mutt tell that story. What kind of competition was I to a greaser; a girl like him? I was, in essence, a preppy, although I wasn't _fully_ one. More so I was in-between the two social classes. And it was kind of a shock to hear that I wasn't Mutt's First Love. I didn't know if that sort of thing was important to men, let alone greasers, but I knew it was important to me. Sure, Mutt hadn't been _my _first love – that honour would always belong to James – but it was just that I hadn't really pictured Mutt in love with anyone else. It was still hard enough to remember he loved _me. _

"Madie, I don't still have feelings for her," Mutt said, and I re-focused my eyes to find him staring at me. The expression on my face must have betrayed me. Damn. My greaser smiled a little, pocketing the stiletto knife. "It ended a long time ago, doll. I'm completely in love with you now." His smile grew bigger, and I felt my own start to form on my face. I was about to turn over on the bed and bury my face in a pillow to hide it when Mutt crawled forward a little bit on the bed and leaned over me. He kissed me once, softly on the lips, and then positioned his body so he was right on top of me. My heartbeat quickened a bit; the feel of his body on top of mine was not something I was used to, but it was definitely something I could _get _used to. A smile finally broke out on my face as he let his weight down on top of me. I didn't feel suffocated or crushed like I thought I would; instead, it was as if the skin around my ribs had tightened, and my breath came a bit faster.

Mutt grinned when he saw what he was doing to me. My cheeks flushed red as he placed another delicate kiss on my lips. Before he could pull away like usual, though, I reached up and locked my arms around his neck, keeping him pressed to me. Mutt chuckled a bit against my lips as I deepened the kiss.

He couldn't expect me to go for this long without some real physical contact, could he? I had never really been... denied... like this before. Don't get me wrong; I liked it. It made our kisses that much more special. But there was only so much a girl _couldn't _take. God, I wanted Mutt _so badly. _

My greaser chuckled again as I slid my hands down over his back, feeling the tight muscles under his leather jacket. He entwined his fingers in my hair, pulling me closer to him and kissing me harder. Our lips moved in perfect synchronization, as if they knew what they were doing all on their own; our bodies fit together like two perfect puzzle pieces. And Mutt may have smelled like leather and hair grease, two smells I had come to love, but he tasted... warm. And a bit like peppermint.

I giggled under his lips, my cheeks flushing a deep red again as I ran my hands down to the bottom of his leather jacket. Just like I had in the sand dunes, I slipped my fingers under the fabric – but this time, I went under his shirt, too. I could feel his warm skin under my hands, and the smooth texture of Mutt's back. He groaned into the kiss, causing me to smile. For some reason, I got the feeling Mutt had never been pushed this far before; no one had ever done this to him before I came along.

We broke the kiss, gasping for breath. Mutt opened his warm chocolate eyes and looked down into mine, staring deeply, as I continued to run my fingers over the muscles in his back. Mutt smiled down at me, breathlessly, and I looked back up into his eyes, getting lost in them.

All too soon, Mutt rolled over and onto his back, away from me. I groaned as I had to slip my hands out from under the back of his shirt. He chuckled, sitting up and brushing his hair with that _infuriating _comb of his. One day, I swear, I was going to snap it in half, burn it, and then drive over it with his motorbike. Seventeen times.

I don't think I had ever gotten as close to Mutt as I had just moments ago – and then he had gone and ended it. I mean, I respected his boundaries, but as I had already said – I really wanted Mutt. But it didn't look like I was going to get anything from him for a long time. I was okay with waiting – I mean, I'm sure it would be worth it – but couldn't we at least_ make out _once in a while? In a way, I was starting to get fed up. I _knew _he wasn't the kind of guy to do things like that, and I didn't want him to change for me, but... what's a girl to do?

"Goodnight, Madie," he said, his voice husky, and I smiled at the sound. My greaser turned out the light and I scrambled under the covers, staring at the plain, dark wall, wondering what new horrors tomorrow would bring – and if Mutt would _ever _kiss me for more than a few minutes at a time.

I fell asleep planning ways to murder his hair comb.

**XxXxX**

**Review responses to:**

_**IFoundHopeInYourHateForMe: **_Thanks so much for the review :) it's great to hear from you! And thank you for the compliments; I try :P  
><em><strong>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x: <strong>_Ahhh, it's great to see that you're back and reviewing! I missed you before :) Anyways, thanks so much for the kind words; I love writing about Mutt and Indy!  
><em><strong>Camilia85560: <strong>_J'espère que cette 'update' vous a satisfait, haha. Désolé cela a pris tellement longtemps! Et merci tellement pour les compliments; il signifie beaucoup à moi! J'aime écrire au sujet des endroits Indiana est allé, comme le puit des âmes :)  
><em><strong>merlincrazy: <strong>_Ahaha, looks like I wasn't 'back' for very long – but now I'm here to stay! ;) I agree; Marion is definitely the peacemaker. Anyways, I hope this chapter satisfied you! :D  
><em><strong>Melody: <strong>_It's okay that you liked the fight, I did too (lol). And yes, thanks for mentioning it; Greece was amazing! And the weather was great too, haha :P_**  
>ks90: <strong>_Sorry the update came so late – but at least it came, right? Anyways, I hope you'll get to see this, since you don't have an account, and thus can't be alerted to updates :( But thanks for the kind words! They mean a lot to me._**  
>yourestupidish01: <strong>_Oh wow, thank you so much for reviewing _every chapter_! You are simply amazing! Thanks so much :) it made my day. And it's quite alright that the reviews came late; as long as they come lol :) You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that you like Mutt and Madie's simple relationship. I've never really written relationships before, so this was sort of a test, but I didn't want to do something over-the-top and ridiculous, since I didn't know if I would be any good at it. But it's great that you are really enjoying it. And I agree; that gushy stuff can get pretty annoying :/ Thanks for the compliments about the short and to-the-point dialogues, too (sorry this response is so long; you wrote a lot! Haha). And I'm ecstatic that you noticed I took a song from the era. I try to keep the pop-culture references to the time period that the story took place in. I think the only slip-up I made was with Scooby Doo, lol – and today with the ninjas :D And that's actually pretty funny about your grandma; do you remember what she named your cousin? Okay, enough rambling. Thanks so much; I hope to hear from you again! :D_**  
>ReaganAdler: <strong>_Don't apologize; you were right! I adore long reviews :) they make the sun seem a little brighter, haha :P sorry for the cheesiness. Anyway, your review gave me a lot to think about, which is good – and it gave me ideas, so thank you! :D I love hearing about your 'conspiracy theories' with Femi and Alfie. And (I guess this is a bit of a spoiler, but only a bit) Madie's uncle, Jeff, will not be appearing in this story. Sorry :P And I agree; I love the way that Indiana and Mutt are pretty similar, and so it makes them fight :P I'm glad to know you enjoyed that chapter and that you had so much to say about it – I hope that you'll like and review this one, too! :D

Until next time, wonderful people! Hopefully the update will come sooner – and please hit that pretty button at the bottom and review! It only takes, like, three seconds to leave a few nice words about what you thought :) No flames, please, and anonymous reviews _are_ accepted :D

-Alexa Blaze


	7. That's What You Get

**A/N:** Lock me in jail. Throw rotten eggs at me. Set my hair on fire. Rip up my curtains. Smash my computer. Hit me over the head with a frying pan (ahem _RogueMetamorph). _All I can say is... I'm sorry.

I've left you guys for way too long, just hanging there. I'm so, so sorry. But you've heard lots of excuses, and I'm sure you're probably bored with them by now. So... all I'm gonna do is apologize

But, s_tay tuned! _There will _probably _be another chapter before Halloween/the end of the month :)

By the way, rompers _were _worn in the fifties. I asked my grandma... and she was a teen in the fifties ;)

Review responses are at the bottom, and thank you _so much _to my reviewers. You guys make the world a bright place ;) ahaha. But seriously. Here's a cookie.

If you review, I'll give you a slice of cake ;) and maybe it'll make me update faster. So please leave a comment. Anonymous reviews are accepted, but please... _no flames._ If you don't like it, don't read it.

Annnndddd as for news about next chapter: there will be a new arc coming that I'm really excited about, I will continue with the "Madie's parents finding out" arc (so don't worry, she's not that immature; she didn't just forget about it), _SALLAH'S COMING :D, _and thank you to _ReaganAdler _for the idea of Madie's lie to her parents blowing up in her face :) it was a great idea, and I hope it's okay with you that I used it.

I'm sorry that this story seems a bit boring at the moment (at least, it does to me), but I promise things will speed up. I'm just not that into this anymore... at least, not as into it as I was with the _Key of Pandora_ story. But don't worry, I'll do my best and finish it anyways... and love every moment of it :)

**Recap of the last chapter:** Madie, Mutt, Indiana, Femi, Alfie, and Marion jumped out of their kidnapper's truck. Alfie broke his wrist when Femi "pushed" him out, and is now in a small hospital in the middle of the small, nameless town the group was able to make it to before nightfall. Currently, everyone but Alfie is in a small motel. Mutt and Madie are sharing a room, and just before the end of the previous chapter, there was a bit of sexual tension, during which the readers find out that Madie is getting a little fed up with Mutt's lack of "action," although she does realize that he's not "that kind of guy."

I don't own anything you may recognize, and I don't own Indiana Jones-related stuff, along with the song at the beginning, which is That's What You Get by Paramore.

Please forgive me, leave me a review... and hopefully, enjoy.

-Lexi

**XxXxX**

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 7: _That's What You Get_

_That's what you get when you let your heart win/I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating/and that's what you get when you let your heart win/now I can't trust myself with anything but this_

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

I woke up before Mutt did, because there was some sort of commotion going on outside of our motel room. Mutt was still asleep; I planted a soft kiss on his temple before sliding out from under the bedcovers, straightening the oversized t-shirt I had worn to bed, pulling my shorts up higher on my hips, and then finally trudging out of the room wearily.

Outside, Indiana stood facing a man I didn't know. It looked suspiciously like a western standoff; Indiana was glaring daggers at the man in front of him.

"Go back inside the room, Madie. You're not properly dressed," Indy growled without even turning to look at me. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood my ground.

"So what's all this about?" I glanced pointedly at the scruffy man, ignoring Indiana's instructions.

The man had a scruffy beard and flyaway brown hair sticking out all over the place, and a face covered with wrinkles. He was Arabian, with dark skin and glittering eyes, but there was an air of untidiness, dirtiness, and distrust around him. Overall, he distantly resembled a lion. The man scratched at his beard and grinned at me in a way that made me regret not listening to Indiana's demands to go back inside.

"This is Abbas," Indiana explained. "He's the friend of a friend, who is going to help us get to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, to search for Ramla. But..."

I raised my eyebrows.

"I take lot of money for pay!" the scruffy man spat when he talked. "Journey dangerous! I not want to risk it if I not have to! So I demand lot of money!"

"I've told you, we don't have much. We can give you some now, and the rest later, when we return to the States. Does that work for you?" Indiana shoved a finger in Abbas's face.

"No! I want all money now! I not take you if you no pay up!"

"We don't have that much money... you've named a ridiculous sum!" Indy growled; I could see it in his face that he was getting fed up.

"Look, I'm sure there's a way we can work through this…" I moved forward to step between the two men, since they seemed to be bristling for a fight. "There's got to be a way we can get you to lower the price."

Abbas shook his head. "It a long, dangerous journey. Many dangers. Never done it before with others. Big risk. Big payment!"

A soft _hem-hem_ reached everyone's ears, and the three of us turned to see Femi standing behind Indiana. Beside her was Alfie; he smiled shyly at me. I noticed that his arm was in a cast, and his wrist was all bandaged up. So he _had_ broken it when he jumped out of the car. Well… when Femi pushed him out of the car.

"I overheard you saying that in order to continue with our journey you must give this man money?" Femi asked, and it was one of the first times I had ever heard her speak politely.

"Yeah, that's right," Indiana sighed. "But the amount he's demanding is ridiculously large. No one's going to have that much money..."

"Actually," Alfie started slowly in his quiet voice; he glanced at his sister, and she nodded for him to continue. "We have jewels. Family heirlooms, actually; they belonged to the pharaohs. Our ancestors." I rolled my eyes. _Great_, they were bringing _this _up again. "We will give you the jewels, instead of money. You can trade them in for cash, if it is that important to you."

"Show me," Abbas said doubtfully. Femi pulled a thick gold chain off her neck, before passing it to the grubby Egyptian. On the end of the necklace was an emerald scarab, set in gold. "We inherited that from our ancestor Cleopatra. You may have that priceless necklace if you show us the way to the Lighthouse."

Indiana now turned on her. "Are you sure you want to give up your "inheritance" for this trip?" he asked.

"Are you even sure you still want to continue with us?" I added just as doubtfully. "I would've thought that after you got a taste of this life - when we jumped out of the van - you might have decided it was too much for you. Besides, Alfie broke his wrist."

"Do you not want us on this trip?" Femi asked in her awkwardly clipped accent.

"No, that's not what I said," I sighed. "But are you sure you'd want to give up something as precious as that for our little expedition?"

Alfie nodded, while Femi smiled. "Of course," she said breathily. "Anything to help."

Indiana looked at the siblings dubiously, before turning back to Abbas, who was smiling in glee. "This is real jewel… and real gold!" he smiled, waving the necklace in Indiana's face. Seeing the piece of jewelry made me reach up and fiddle nervously with the dog tag I had around my neck; Mutt's dog tag. He had given it to me on our first adventure together, in Europe, and I hadn't taken it off since. It was the one piece of him I could hold on to, and the one piece I would always have with me… the one piece that didn't constantly push me away.

"Uhh…" I could see the gears turning in Indy's head. "So does this mean you'll accept it as payment?"

"Yes! Yes!" Abbas called, hopping from foot to foot excitedly. I exchanged a dubious glance with Indiana. With a man like Abbas leading us anywhere, we'd be lucky if we even managed to find our way out of this town.

Scratching the back of my neck anxiously, I looked at Indiana. I had another matter that needed to be dealt with.

"What's the date today?" I asked him politely, and he turned to me with a slightly confused expression on his wrinkled face.

"December, Friday the 13th," he responded. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I was just thinking that maybe I should call my parents to check up with them, so they can continue to think I'm at some archaeological thing with you: not galloping around Egypt with Mutt and jumping out of cars. You know, play the "innocent daughter" part."

Indiana nodded. "I'm pretty sure there's a pay phone in the lobby of the motel," he said while pulling some change out of his pocket. "Here," he handed it to me. "Don't take too long. We have to get going; I want to get to the Lighthouse today and find out what exactly it has to do with Sallah."

Nodding, I strode over to the motel lobby and straight to the pay phone. There was a greasy man in his fifties sitting at the desk, but he payed no attention to me as I dropped the coins in the slot, held up the receiver to my ear, and punched in my telephone number.

After a few moments of waiting for the slow connection and then listening to the phone ring, a new thought struck me. There was a time change between here and Bedford… so what if I was calling in the middle of the night?

Nonetheless, my parents picked up the phone.

"Hey," I started in the high-pitched voice I always used when talking on the phone. "It's Madie. I'm just calling to check in -"

_"JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"_ an exceedingly angry voice came from the other end of the line; my father, who had picked up the phone, was furious.

"Uhh… excuse me?"

"You must take us for fools, Madison," he scoffed, talking quickly and loudly. "I checked up on your so-called "essay writing contest" and trip to an archaeology exhibit with Dr Jones, and there is no such thing! Don't even try and lie to us this time, young lady! Where are you?"

I honestly had no idea what to say.

"And I know that you're with Dr Jones' son; that Mutt boy. Just where are you exactly, and what have you been doing? Have you been forced into this? Because if you have, we could get the police involved…"

That snapped me out of my stupor. "No, don't call the police. I chose to do this," I said proudly, as if my father would find that to be a good thing.

"What has gotten in to you? Since when have you acted out like this? It's all that greaser's influence... isn't it," dad seethed, and his anger was clear even oceans away.

"Now, don't you go blaming it on Mutt," I sniffed. "He hasn't done anything." I've just fallen in love with the very person my parents despise, that's all.

"Where are you, Madison?" my father asked slowly, pronouncing each word slowly so I would understand what he meant (as if the message wasn't clear before: sarcasm intended).

I considered telling him I was Egypt: but my parents already hated me enough. At this point, lying could only make things better. What would my dad say if I told him I was currently in Egypt, on the other side of the world? He still thinks I've never even left the United States. And besides, he'd probably give me his "that's no place for a respectable girl like you" speech.

I just couldn't believe that the whole thing had blown up in my face like that.

My parents weren't the curious type; they didn't usually go digging around for information. They must've done it because my sudden disappearance - and lack of details about my expedition - reminded them of September, when I suddenly went missing without a trace. Back then, my excuse had been that I had been staying at my uncle's, and they had believed that, since my uncle backed up the story (he had been on the adventure with me, and had realized how important it was to keep my true location a secret).

But now that I thought about it… my parents were right. I had given them a flimsy excuse with a terrible background story. It wouldn't take much inquiring of university staff and students to find out it was fake, and even less work to simply realize, on one's own, that my story had been lacking crucial details.

So instead of telling my dad I was in Egypt, I rose up to my full height, took a deep breath, and stood up for myself.

"Why do you even have to know?" I said haughtily; his end of the line stayed silent. "I'm no longer a kid. As a matter of fact, I'm an adult now. I can make my own decisions and do what I want without you and mom telling me what to do. I'm not a kid anymore, and so you can't have complete control over my life. Hell, if you keep treating me like this and trying to control me, I'll move out. You and mom think you can still tell me what to do, like not to date Mutt. But you know what? It's not your decision! You aren't the ones dating him! So just accept it."

The line stayed silent for a long time, before my dad's voice crackled over the line again one last time. "Fine," he said, still sounding angry, and now disappointed, as well. "Do what you want; go where you want and don't tell us where you are. Date that dangerous greaser boy, too; the one that's only going to break your heart. But don't expect a warm welcome when you get home," he added in a low voice - and then my own father hung up on me.

**XxXxX**

After giving Indy a quick update on how my parents had found out and what to expect when we got home, I trudged back to my motel room to get dressed. Mutt was lying sprawled across the bed, still asleep.

I felt bad about it, but I was kind of mad at him. Things kept piling up: his indifference about telling me about all his different girlfriends, the way he was partially the reason my parents hated me, that one girl he used to love named Miranda, his reluctance for any sort of action (or even kissing)… it was all slowly getting on my nerves. Besides, something my dad had said irked me. He said "he's only going to break your heart." And the sad part was that he was probably was right. It's not like Mutt and I were going to get married or something. I just couldn't see the greaser getting down on one knee and proposing - at least, not to me.

Maybe to that Miranda girl, a snarky voice in my mind added, and I had the urge to bang my head against the wall.

I opened the drawer with my clothing in it. Marion had been smart enough to pack one extra outfit for each of us in her bag, so even though we had been kidnapped and were currently away from the rest of our stuff, I still had something clean to wear. It was a dusty-looking beige-coloured romper, with a cord to tie at the waist and a brown jacket. I slipped into it quickly in the bathroom, and tied up my black converse, steeling myself for a long day.

When I came out of the bathroom, Mutt was sitting outside on the bed, finally awake, and looking rather disoriented. I picked up the clean shirt and jeans that his mom had brought him, and flung them at the boy without even looking in his direction.

"Hey, babe," he said in a chirpy voice.

"Hey," I grumbled in response. My hair was covering half of my face so that he couldn't see my expression as I packed up yesterday's clothes and shoved them in a plastic grocery bag.

I heard Mutt slide off the bed, and to my displeasure, my muscles tensed up when I heard him walking towards me. He put his arms around my waist, but I didn't turn to envelop myself in his embrace.

"What's wrong?" he murmured, putting his lips in my hair and breathing in deeply. I squirmed a bit uncomfortably.

"Nothing," I said in a high voice, trying to sound carefree, and coming off as nervous. Mutt chuckled and gave me a quick kiss on the top of the head, before trudging off.

I was left wondering if things would always be like this between us - and whether or not I had a valid reason to be upset.

**XxXxX**

We left the small merchant's town in the middle of the day – when it was hottest. The sun was beating off the desert sand remorselessly, and the heat level was practically unbearable. Abbas, who was now our official guide (officially deranged is more like it), rented us a car to drive out of the city. The car had no air conditioning, and with seven bodies packed into it... it was boiling. I was starting to like Egypt less and less.

After an hour or two of driving across the desert (and more complaints about the cramped car from Femi than I could count), with hardly any roads to follow, we arrived in Alexandria. The city was quite similar to Cairo, but it was a lot smaller; the streets were dusty, busy and bustling with Arabians, and the houses were all the same sandy color. Abbas parked the car in a nondescript alleyway, and we all got out, stretching our limbs gratefully.

"So... where to?" Marion asked, putting her hair into an intricate knot to keep it off her face. "We have to go to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, right?"

"Yeah, but that was destroyed a long time ago," said Indiana. "It's one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World... but as you know, all the Wonders have been destroyed except for the Pyramids of Giza. The Citadel of Qaitbay was built over top of the ruins. That's why I don't understand the little message on the back of the picture. Either it was written before the lighthouse was destroyed, and therefore, this is a pointless search, or..."

"Or there be another entrance to old Lighthouse of Alexandria!" Abbas exclaimed eagerly. "I am one of few who know how to enter below Citadel, and in to ruins. I know you find what you looking for down there. Many interesting and undiscovered things lie under Citadel; things no one know what they are!" he smiled, exposing his blackened teeth. The Arabian's English may have been bad, but at least I could understand him.

"So... we don't have to go to the Citadel?" Mutt asked, staring at Abbas with distaste.

"No... We go under! Secret entrance not far from here. I show you." And with that, he started to hobble off down the street, and we had no choice to follow.

After a few moments (I'm not even kidding you; we hadn't even left the alley), Femi started to complain. "My feet are tired," she started. "Let's rest. We've been travelling all day."

"Yeah... in a car," Mutt rolled his eyes. She seemed to take that as an invitation for her to sidle up beside him.

"I'm not used to roughing it. I'm tired; this is way more exercise than someone of my lineage should do. I bet Cleopatra didn't have to walk through the musty streets-"

"Yeah, well, you're not Cleopatra," I could hear the annoyance in Mutt's tone. "We've hardly walked half a block!"

Femi shut up then, but I did notice that she still continued to walk rather close to my greaser, and she kept eyeing him. A surge of jealousy ripped through me – the same envious feeling I had felt when Mutt had talked about that Miranda girl. Mutt was _my_ boyfriend. Femi had no business cuddling up to him like that.

Still, I didn't do anything to stop it. I was already fed up, and for no valid reason, too. Maybe this would give me the excuse I needed to be angry.

_Did I really _want_ to be angry? Had it all come down to this? I actually _wanted_ to fight with Mutt?_ I thought, my eyes widening. Was I really so annoyed that I needed to lash out at him; tell him how I really felt? Couldn't I still do that in a calm, rational way? Was getting in a fight with him the only way I could vent?

Needless to say, things with Mutt and I weren't going to well at the moment. It was like we were treading on broken glass; the more we moved forwards, the more hurt we became.

Abbas lead us back out of the city and around a corner, to a point in the desert where we could see the Mediterranean Sea. The Lighthouse of Alexandria had obviously been built on the coastline; it was a lighthouse, after all, and its purpose was to guide sailors and ships into the harbour at night time.

Just as we started to near a small tunnel near the base of the Citadel – a tunnel that looked unused and generally unnoticed – a fierce wind whipped up, blowing sand into everyone's faces. I stopped dead in my tracks; it was like a sort of omen, telling us not to go down to the tunnel.

As Abbas moved closer, he started to walk backwards, facing us. "Do not worry!" he shouted over the howling window. "This normal! Happen every time!"

That wasn't very reassuring.

As we got closer, the wind picked up until simply trying to shield my eyes from the billowing sand wasn't good enough. The wind had become so strong that it was picking up the desert sand and blowing it into everyone's faces, hair, and clothing.

And after just a few more steps, the sandstorm was so thick I couldn't see any of my companions.

I stopped walking, and tried to shield my face from the onslaught. The tiny grains of sand were painful against my flesh; an unneeded wake-up call. I was being scraped raw as I tried to peer around me to find Indy, or Mutt, or even Abbas – but I couldn't even see a shadow. Besides, it was difficult to keep my eyes open for even more than a few seconds.

The wind picked up again, and it pushed me back, before I fell on my butt, coughing. If I opened my mouth to try and yell out, I would end up swallowing the desert sand. I needed to get to shelter, and fast. But there was no shelter out here...

Except for the small tunnel that led to the secret entrance to the ruins.

I shifted around so that I was on my hands and knees, and, very carefully, I crawled forward blindly, my hands reaching out in front of me to make sure I didn't bump into something. It was slow going, the sand was suffocating, and I hated not being able to have my vision to guide me. I shut my eyes fully now, deciding that being blind was better than being blind with sand in my eyes.

I had only crawled a few feet through the blasting sand when I realized something strange: I was freezing cold. The winds whipping around me weren't warm, like the ones that had surrounded our car on the way to Alexandria. No, these ones were frigid – like an arctic wind, but worse. If I didn't get to shelter quickly, I wouldn't just die of sandblasting... I would die of hypothermia.

Just as I was pulling the front of my t-shirt over my mouth to keep sand from getting in there (it wasn't like I had access to a mask or anything), I bumped into something. Reaching my hands out blindly and feeling around, I realized it was a person – they had a nose, mouth, eyes, and hair. The person reached out to me, too, and clasped one of my hands; together, we continued to crawl forwards through the storm.

It felt like hours passed before we bonked into something cold and very hard. It was the entrance wall to the stone tunnel I had seen before. Shoulders slumping in relief, I crawled inside after my companion and collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily. Carefully, I brushed the sand out of my eyes; anonymous hands passed me a cool, wet cloth, and I wiped my face down with it. Once I could open my eyes again, I looked up to see Marion – she had been the person who had grabbed my hand – brushing a thick layer of sand off her clothing. Indiana and Abbas sat behind her, arguing; Alfie had a water bottle and a ripped cloth in his hand. So it had been him who had passed me the damp cloth. I smiled in thanks, trying (in vain) to get the sand out of my hair.

The tunnel we were in was crudely made of huge blocks of sandstone similar to the ones in the Well of Souls, and the entrance was a small square low to the ground and off to the side. Hardly any sand was billowing through it.

Did that mean that the storm was over?

_No, it couldn't have,_ I decided. Mutt and Femi were still missing.

Crap. Mutt _and_ Femi. _Together._

Jealousy surged through me again, and I had the urge to hit something. I shouldn't be feeling this… I trusted Mutt. It wasn't like he was going to get _involved _with Femi in any way… hell, he even found her annoying…

They both stumbled in together a few minutes later. Femi was clutching Mutt in a strange side-hug, and he had an arm around her waist. They collapsed on the floor, Femi lying on top of Mutt's chest.

Okay. Now I was pissed.

I wouldn't meet Mutt's eyes as we all stood up, and Abbas gave us instructions on what to do next. It was something along the lines of continuing down the tunnel; I wasn't paying attention. Inside, I was seething, although I had no right to be. My emotions had just been so messed up during the past couple of hours. First, Mutt telling me about his many girlfriends, and the other girl he fell in love with. Then, my dad's comment about Mutt only breaking my heart, and my parents finding out about my lie. Plus, there was that thing about my greaser being rather sparing on the physical side of the relationship… and now this strange Femi arc. It was obvious by the way she looked at him that she wanted him. It had even been obvious back in the square in Cairo; I had just been too oblivious to realize what it was.

I sighed as we started to trudge down the tunnel, ignoring Mutt's outstretched hand. This was going to be a long day.

**XxXxX**

Review responses to:

_**Druid**__**Archer**_: thank you so much for the review! It means the world to me :) and what is it that you think (about why Mutt doesn't really kiss Madie)? I'm curious ;)  
><em><strong>MandaPanda89<strong>__:_ it's quite alright, don't worry about it :) I love hearing from you! Anyways, I'm glad you liked that chapter, and I hope this one is okay as well :P  
><em><strong>WolfiesLittleMoon<strong>_: Hey! It's nice to hear from new people :) I'm soooo sorry this took so long! And I love your penname, by the way ;) anyways, in response to your Alfie/Femi comment: I totally understand what you mean. The reason for that is that I wrote chapter six… and when I went back for editing… I realized I had forgotten about them! *Guilty* so I'm sorry they seemed a bit out of it :P  
><em><strong>Lydily<strong>_: it's so nice to hear from you again! And it's quite alright if you're a bit slow on the reviewing; trust me, I understand busy lives :( I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well… et j'espère qui tu est bien! Désolé qu'il m'a pris si longtemps pour vous répondre. I hope to hear from you again in a review, though!  
><em><strong>Melody<strong>_: I love hearing from you :D and I'm sorry this has taken so long; it must be hard since you're an anonymous reviewer. Anyways, I'm glad you like their relationship... Although I'm slowly starting to destroy it :( don't worry though! You've just got to keep reading to find out what happens ;) and you have a right to be worried about Femi! Until next time :)  
><em><strong>x XRoweenaJAugustineX<strong>__ x:_ thank you so much for the kind words :) and I hope your move went well! Yes, of course I missed your reviews ;) And yep, good summing up of Femi and Jafari/Alfie. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again! :D  
><em><strong>camilia85560<strong>_: Bonjour! Je suis bien heureux que vous avez aimé le baiser enter Mutt et Madie; c'est de la nouvelle fantastique. J'espère qui vous aimez cette chapitre aussi! ;)  
><em><strong>Merlincrazy<strong>_: Ah, my oldest and most faithful reviewer :) it's amazing to still be hearing from you. I'm glad you liked the fluff, and I'm sorry this wait took so long, too. Don't you miss the old days where I updated three times a day? :( Anyways, who knows? Maybe after Halloween I'll be able to do that again :) cross your fingers!  
><em><strong>ParfaitFille<strong>_: Great to hear back from you! I'm glad you liked the chapters :) that means a lot to me. I hope you'll see this update and review as well; I really appreciate your kind words!  
><em><strong>Hitomi<strong>__**Kina**__**Ryuu**_: thank you so much for taking time out of your days to read my stories! And for reviewing, as well :) I feel so lucky when people like you tell me how I'm doing. So thank you a billion times over!  
><em><strong>RogueMetamorph<strong>_: WHOA. That was one long review… me likey :)  
>The reviews you left on this chapter and my other story were mind-blowing. I can't thank you enough. Your words were more than I could hope for :) and I love how you said you were telling your friends about this! That is possibly one of the greatest things anyone has ever said :D<br>Anyways, your comments about the KoP story are amazing :) I love to hear your reactions, they make me so happy! Ahaha sorry, that sounded cheesy :P and I'm glad you like Madie, and her relationship with Mutt. I've never really written romance before, so to do it like this was a huge risk, and I'm glad you enjoy it.  
>You'll just have to wait and see about Femi; I have things in store for her ;)<br>As for your comment about the Greek artifacts disappearing and becoming forgotten… well… all I can say is… KEEP READING :D  
>Thanks so much for your review. It means the world to me :) I hope you'll comment on this chapter as well… so, once again, thank you!<br>Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find a pillow to place over my head while you're hitting me with that frying pan ;)

ALEXA OUT :D


	8. Full Circle

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 8: _Full Circle_

_Tried to run, but I keep on, coming back/full circle, and I/can't jump the track/can't let you go_

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

_Stupid Femi. Stupid Mutt. Stupid Abbas. Stupid lighthouse. Stupid adventure. Stupid Egypt. Stupid_ _Sallah. Stupid Ramla. Stupid parents. _

I was not in a good mood.

We walked through the tunnel without speaking – but just because we weren't talking doesn't mean we were silent. I swear Femi was trying to make as much noise as possible, and Alfie had the footsteps of an elephant. The noise sounded wrong and unnatural in the otherwise quiet environment, and I had the urge to put my hands over my ears.

I think that, by now, Mutt had realized I was mad at him. After a few attempts (all of which I had rebuffed) of holding my hand, putting his arm around me, or trying to start up a conversation, he had decided to resort to sulking in the back of the group. With Femi.

_Stupid Femi. Stupid Mutt. _

I repeated it in my mind as our footsteps echoed through the dark, empty tunnels: _Stupid Abbas. Stupid lighthouse. Stupid adventure_. I was slowly but surely counting down everything that was making me angry right now... things that would eventually boil over and push me over the edge. _Stupid Egypt. Stupid Sallah. Stupid Ramla. Stupid parents. _

The dilemma with my mother and father was gnawing at my mind. Gnawing. What a great word. All my worries were currently gnawing on my soul, gnawing on my brain, gnawing at my conscious...

All this gnawing was driving me slightly insane; there was no doubt about that.

But really... what was I going to do about my parents finding out I had lied to them? I felt so guilty for betraying their trust. They had done nothing to deserve it; they were just trying to protect me. And within the past few months, I had been totally ignoring them and pushing them away. Distancing myself. They were right; I had changed. But what for?

The answer for that was easy, and it wasn't something I was proud of.

For a guy.

Everyone always tells girls to never, _ever _change for a man – that we should stay ourselves and be true to what we really want. But what if I didn't actually change for Mutt... what if _he _changed _me? _I wanted so badly to believe that it was the case... but a part deep inside of me knew that it was only partially so. On our adventure in September and October, I had started off as a preppy who hadn't been happy with the fact that she was a preppy. Now, I was no longer a preppy... I wasn't anything. I was somewhere in-between, lost in translation.

But had Mutt been the only reason I had changed? I would like to believe that no, it wasn't. I was upset and bored with my life at home; I longed for adventure and something new and exciting. I had gotten just that, and it was everything I had hoped for. Not everyone gets to go on adventures with Indiana Jones, let alone just plain old _adventures. _

But I hadn't been pushing away my parents because I liked adventures. While the reasons may have partially been because I was no longer a full-blown preppy or the little girl who they thought was perfect in every aspect, the main reason was because I had fallen in love with Mutt – a man who was the embodiment of everything my parents hated and had tried to warn me against.

The same man who I was no longer talking to.

Was it really worth choosing him over my parents, especially since our relationship might not last forever? At the moment, it certainly seemed to be deteriorating. It was something I wasn't proud of, but it was most certainly my fault.

I didn't know whether or not I should call my parents and apologize for what I had said. A lot of my points had been valid – I _was _nineteen, and that was legal age. I was an adult now, and I could make my own decisions. But since I was still living under my parent's roof and being supported by them, I did owe it to them to at _least _explain my actions and apologize. They would freak if I told them I was in Egypt, though, and maybe it wouldn't be the smartest of ideas.

Although my father and I had our differences, and although he got angry easily, we had a pretty good relationship. I was most like him, after all – we had the same hair color, same nose, same face shape, and same stance. We weren't only similar in looks, though. We could both be oblivious to the most obvious of things, we both got angry for no reason sometimes, and we were both rather quiet unless we had something to say that was essential to the conversation... Maybe, just maybe, my father would understand. Sure, he had been the one yelling at me over the phone, but that didn't mean he was the spark behind the fire of anger. I mean, although he was just a boring college professor, he must've craved for adventure at least _once _in his life. All it would take for him to side with me would be to remind him of a long-forgotten and buried dream of his; something his own parents might have restricted him from doing.

Mom, though, was a completely different story. I may have loved her and looked up to her – she gave great advice, too – but we had never really gotten along well. She was the poster girl for perfect housewives with boring, normal lives and biased views on the world. Mom – Mary Clarke – tried her hardest to drill what was right and wrong into my brain, without giving me room to breathe or make decisions and choices for myself. She was an overprotective and disapproving parent; if something wasn't perfect, then it simply wasn't good enough. She was constantly trying to do things for me – things like taking away my freedom of choice and watching my every move like a hawk. Maybe that was one of the reasons I had loved getting in a relationship with Mutt; it had meant I was _finally _flying under her radar and doing things my way. It had certainly taken long enough to do it. Besides, Mutt was everything she hated, and I enjoyed making my own decisions about what I wanted, without her biased views making every choice for me.

But ever since I _had_ started dating Mutt, we had butted heads even more. Now, every little thing was a fight and a competition between the two of us. No matter what I did, she found something wrong with it, and she used every chance she could to explain to me again and again how bad Mutt was – even though she had never met the man. She refused to meet him, almost as if she had a phobia that he would taint her perfect lifestyle. And already, he had – he had "ruined" her perfect daughter. She hated the very thought of him, and told me this tirelessly. Honestly, the only words I heard out of her mouth nowadays always had something to do with how horrible Mutt was, what a bad influence he could be, and how he had already changed me for the worse.

And that brought me back full circle. I felt like I was constantly doing loops in my head; replaying the same scenes over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

My epiphany of sorts was officially driving me crazy.

By the time we had reached our first obstacle (well, second if you counted the sandstorm), I still hadn't made up my mind about what to do about my parents. Even though there had been an incredible amount of soul-searching so far on this short voyage, I still didn't know what to do. To close off the subject in my head, I decided to talk to Indiana about it later, and put off calling my parents again – at least until they had had the chance to calm down.

The first (and, in the end, it became the only) problem that crossed our path was a deep gorge, split across the tunnel. Sighing, I tried to gauge how deep it was. How many fricking bottomless pits did we have to come across?

"Do we have to go across?" Indiana asked in a monotone voice, looking towards Abbas, our "trusted" guide.

"Eh... Well, you see, I not go further than this... I only know the thing you search is here because of rumours..." he smiled guiltily.

"You mean to say," Indiana growled, rounding on the Arab, "that you might have just brought us to a dead end? Even after we payed you and everything?" Abbas just stood, cowering in the corner with a sheepish look on his face.

"No, no. I am sure that what you look for is here... I just not know where. You must find yourselves."

Marion placed a cool hand on Indiana's forearm and tugged him away, mumbling a few quick words in his ear. They seemed to calm him down, and he slowly pulled his whip out from its loop on his belt. I understood what he was going to do; he was going to use the bullwhip to swing himself across the chasm and to the other side. He'd done it before – that much I knew.

"Fine. We're going across, though. And you're coming with us," Indy glared at Abbas.

"How are we going to get across?" Alfie asked innocently, cradling his arm gently.

"We jump," Femi responded in a bossy tone, as if she knew everything. The dark-haired Arabian girl then turned to me, smiling with a strange expression in her eyes that I didn't like. "Madie," she said politely, as if discussing the weather, "you can go first." And then she pushed me off the side of the ledge.

**XxXxX**

Henry (Mutt) Jones III's POV

I watched in horror as Femi shoved Madie forward roughly, towards the edge of the chasm. She stumbled a bit, feet slipping on the rocky edge and arms flailing, before tumbling forward, a scream escaping her throat. Indiana and I leapt forward at the same moment, both reaching for her… my fingers just barely grazed the edge of her heel as she shrieked and went spiralling down the hole like a rock.

"What the hell did you do?" Indiana roared at Femi, while I scrambled to my knees, peering out over the hole and trying to see the bottom.

"I gave her a boost. She just didn't jump far enough," Femi shrugged, unflinching under my father's gaze.

"You bastard- We would've used my whip to get across!" he yelled at her. For a moment, I thought he was going to hit her… and then we all heard a splash.

Worry encompassed me. It had come from below me, down the gorge… had it been Madie? Was she alright? None of us had any idea of how deep the hole might be, or if the fall would be fatal. My eyes stung and my hands shook when I thought about what state she might be in at the moment.

There were so many things I hadn't told her, and so many things I hadn't done. I knew she was mad at me right now, and I didn't want our relationship to end in her death while she was upset. Even though I didn't fully understand her reasoning for being angry, I had a pretty good idea of what it was - she was upset because I wasn't being very open with her, and because I had kept the physical part of our relationship to a minimum.

Well, sorry that I'm not that kind of guy.

I may have acted like it - how else did you explain the multiple ex-girlfriends I've had? - but I didn't like being all touchy-feely. Madie was different than that, and although I loved her, our differences could cause problems.

"Madie?" I called out tenitevly. "Doll?" She had to be okay. There was no way I could lose her, right after I'd gotten her. I then promised myself that no matter what my boundaries were, I would kiss her heartily if she made it out alive. I at least owed her that.

But I also owed it to her to be more protective. I had been pretty lax around her, but no matter what she thought she was, she was a preppy. My preppy. And she deserved someone to watch over her; I needed to make sure she didn't get hurt. Madie wasn't cut out for this sort of work, as much as I hated to admit it. And she needed more protection… if she survived the fall, I was going to give her just that.

Poor Madie. Poor, beautiful, kind Madie. What the hell had Femi done? What had she been _thinking_?

"Madie?" I called again; no answer. "Madie!" I shouted, and my voice was hoarse with worry. I leaned as far down as I could without having my parents get upset with me. Anxiously, I pulled my comb out of my pocket, and tried to run it through my hair. When I was anxious, it became my therapy. But my hands were shaking too much; the greasy comb slipped out of my fingers and tumbled down the trench.

My ears strained to hear the sound of the comb hit to bottom, so I could gauge just how deep the trench was. But instead of a thunk, all I heard was a tiny "Ow."

Hope swelled in my chest. "Madie?"

"Mutt?" a voice called up; her voice. Smiling with relief, I stood up from where I had been crouched. "Did your comb just hit me on the head?"

"Yes," I almost laughed, overwhelmingly relieved. Over in the corner, I noticed Femi with a small frown on her face, but I didn't think much of it. "Are you okay, babe? What's down there? Are you hurt?"

"Actually," she coughed a bit, "I'm fine. The fall wasn't that long… and it seems like there's an underwater cavern down here," she shouted up at us. "I'm floating in the middle of some sort of dark pond; I can't touch the bottom or feel the sides, but I'm definitely submerged in water." Now that I listened, I could hear the sounds of liquid splashing and water treading.

"Okay… hang tight. Don't go anywhere, baby. We'll get you out," I looked up at Dad for assistance. Indy was examining the wall, probably looking for a good way to get down.

Suddenly, Madie screamed. "What? What is it?" I asked, panicking again. I couldn't stand being away from her and unable to help; it was killing me.

"Just… there's skulls… lined up on the wall," she said in a trembling voice, disgust coloring her tone. "I've reached the side of the cavern, and there's a ledge cut into the wall. Oh, this is vile… there're so many skulls, human and animal alike, lined up on the edge…"

I ran a hand over my hair, smoothing it down anxiously. Now that I didn't have a comb, I decided to pull my stiletto knife out and start flipping it around. "Dad? Is there anything we can do?"

Indy frowned. "Hang on a sec, Junior. I'm trying to figure things out. Just… chill."

"How am I supposed to chill when Madie's practically drowning down there all alone?"

"Can we not just go without her?" Femi asked, and I glanced up at her in utter surprise and disbelief. "Mutt, I…" she reached for my hand, a hopeful look on her face.

I turned away in disgust and headed back towards the edge of the trench. Femi was _way_ too forward with me. Didn't she realize I already had a girlfriend?

Apparently not.

Femi sidled up to me moments later and laced her fingers through mine. I tried to pull away, but she held them in a vice-like grip. When she rested her head on my shoulder, I froze, not knowing how to react.

Mom broke the awkward silence when she called down at Madie again. "You still there?" she called, and I was relieved that she didn't notice Femi cuddling my side. "Find anything interesting?

Our only response was silence.

As expected, my immediate reaction was panic again. I pulled away from Femi violently, almost knocking us both into the hole. "Madie!" I called out, hoping that maybe we hadn't given her enough time to answer.

Once again, we were greeted by the sounds of nothing.

"Madison!" Alfie called down as well, a frown creasing his forehead as he cradled his arm in its cast. She didn't respond to him, either.

That was it. I couldn't bear standing there while the girl I loved was down in a deep, dark trench, and something was obviously wrong with her.

I shrugged out of my leather jacket and my shirt, shoving them roughly into Marion's arms. "I want something dry to get into when I get back," I explained - and then before anyone could protest, I leapt feet-first into the trench.

Moments later, I hit the water. It was salty and cold, and seemed to cling to every particle of my body. I sank deep below the surface, greased hair becoming un-jelled, before swimming to the top again and gasping for breath.

"Henry?" my mother's panicked voice came down, and I responded urgently that I was okay.

"That was a reckless thing to do!" Indiana yelled down at me at the top of his lungs. I didn't respond, because new paranoia was gripping my throat and making speaking - and breathing - impossible.

Madie was gone.

Reaching out blindly and swimming forward a big (it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face), I bumped into a wall. Using my hands to feel around, I noted that Madie had been right - there was ledge carved into the wall, and along it were skulls of many different shapes and sizes.

"Madie?" I called, and was finally rewarded with a muffled shout and a thump. It had sounded like it had come from _behind the wall_…

As my fingers continued to roam the ledge, I noticed a small, thin lever of sorts hiding underneath one of the skulls. Tugging on it roughly, I was surprised when it shifted forwards an inch - and a small panel just above water level opened. A panel big enough for Madie or me to fit through.

I called up to the others and altered them to what I had found before climbing in. As soon as I had entered, something - or someone - threw their arms around me and knocked me to the floor.

"Mutt!" Madie sighed in immense relief, hugging me tight. I was suddenly acutely aware of my bare chest and back, but she didn't seem to notice. I wrapped my arms around her in response, smiling into the dark; although I couldn't see her, I knew she was relieved to see me.

She slipped out of my arms, and as soon as I could no longer touch her, I freaked. I couldn't see anything, and the darkness was engulfing…

"Mutt. Come over here," she whispered from somewhere to my right. I crawled over to where she was - the waterless cavern we were now in wasn't high enough for standing room - and plopped down beside her. "There're carvings on the walls," she explained, reaching for my hand and bringing it up to the wall; she ran my fingers over the deeps groves in the stone. "Do you think these were what we were looking for?"

I shrugged. "Could be. We're certainly low enough to be in the old Lighthouse of Alexandria."

"Do you have anything that could give us light, so we can see whatever is on the wall?"

I shook my head, but then realized she couldn't see me. "No."

We sat in silence for a few moments, our fingers slowly and deliberately traced over the carved patterns in the wall.

And then, all at once, we both blurted out: "I'm sorry."

She rushed ahead before I could even breathe. "I'm sorry that I'm being such an ass, Mutt. It's just that recently, I've been getting really frustrated. Obviously I'm stressed about this adventure…" she sighed, "but there are other things, as well. Firstly, I'm worried about my parents. I hate lying to them. My relationship with my parents is going downhill - and they're my _parents_. They've been taking care of me for my whole life. I feel horrible for suddenly turning on them like I am. And… they hate you. No offense. They haven't even met you, but they hate you. And I despise having my parents hate _you_, because you're the best thing in my life right now." She took a breath.

"And then there's Femi, too. I don't know if you've noticed it, but I think she has a thing for you. Just the way she looks at you, and how she always follows you around and flirts with you…" I felt Madie shudder as my cheeks reddened, remembering the moment right before I jumped in the water. "I just feel… extremely jealous," she said in a huff, as if it was hard for her to admit.

"And… Mutt, I'm sorry to say this, but… sometimes you can be a little inconsiderate. You had no idea how upset I was when you were prattling on about your girlfriends. I guess I felt jealous again, but I was angry as well, because you were acting like it was no big deal." I opened my mouth to say sorry, but the words kept rushing out of her mouth, as if she had been waiting forever to say them.

"And then there's, well… my big problem." I felt her hands move away from the wall, and she wrapped them around herself. I could tell she was struggling to put her next point into words. "I love you, Henry Jones, but sometimes I feel like you don't really feel the same way."

At this, I stiffened, and my jaw clenched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shifted uncomfortably in the darkness, and I found myself relieved that I couldn't see her face. "Just that you never really return any of the affection I show you. I mean, sure, we hang out a lot… but the physical and romantic side of our relationship is sorely lacking. I understand that you aren't the kind of guy to force girls to conform to what you want - and I really, really respect and appreciate that - and that you aren't the kind of guy to engage in a real relationship with someone at all, but I just feel a bit empty, I guess. I can respect your boundaries, Mutt… but one kiss on the cheek once a month doesn't really qualify to being boyfriend and girlfriend. We're practically just friends, even though I love you."

We sat in silence for a long time while I processed all this in my mind. So _that_ was why she had been so angry. Well, if Madie really felt that way… I could change. I would do anything to keep her, and changing a simple thing about me wasn't that big of a price to pay.

Slowly and timidly, I slid a hand across the floor until it came in contact with her fingers. Gently, I curled my hand over her own until we loosely had our fingers interlocked. I was immensely relieved when she didn't pull away.

After a little while more, I closed my eyes. "I'm sorry, doll," I softly mumbled. "I love you, Madie. I'm so sorry. I know you're upset, and I really want to fix this with you." I squeezed her hand a little bit. "I don't know what to do about your parents, though. Maybe... maybe I could actually talk to them, for once, and then they'd see that I'm not so bad." I felt Madie shake her head, but I rushed on before she could say something.

"And about the Femi problem," I snorted, "you have nothing to worry about, babe. Sure, she might be a little pushy, but I would never, _ever_ leave you for her. And I promise that I'll start pushing her away whenever she makes a move.

"The only thing that I can say about the girlfriend thing is I'm sorry, okay?" I gave a dark chuckle. It wasn't in my nature to apologize like this, and as much as I loved her and wanted to stop fighting, it was taking a lot out of me. "I'm still kind of inexperienced with how girls work. Just because I've been in a lot of relationships doesn't mean I'm good at it, doll. And I didn't realize it would upset you so much," I frowned.

"And for the last part... about my lack of, uh, physical, um, movements..." I sighed, and ran a hand through my wet hair. "I guess I sort of understand where you're coming from, baby. We haven't exactly been very 'close,' and I'll take the blame," I bit my lip; I really hated saying that. "I just... I guess..."

And that's when I stopped. I was on the brink of a huge epiphany, but it was something that I didn't even want to admit to myself... the reason why I didn't kiss Madie as often as a normal boyfriend should. But I shut up like a clam, and removed my hand from hers, curling my fingers over my toes and running my tongue along the inside of my cheek.

After a long, awkward moment of silence, I heard Madie shift onto her hands and knees and start crawling towards the exit. "Thanks," she said softly, but I could hear an undertone of sadness. "I accept your apology... for part of it. But this last issue... well, it hasn't been resolved yet." And then she turned and left me alone in the dark – regretting the fact that I hadn't said anything.

**XxXxX**

**A/N:** Hi again.

So… the update is late. I'm sorry - really, I truly am. But by now, you guys probably don't even believe me anymore.

Next chapter _will_ be soon, though. I doubt there will be a long wait between this and the next one. _Finally._

This chapter turned out wayyyy different than I thought/planned it would. For one, Sallah didn't appear, and for two, I didn't get to introduce the new arc. They'll happen next chapter, don't worry. I just… I don't know. This chapter was pretty physiological, I guess. I'm not happy with the turnout, but it'll suffice.

I don't own Indiana Jones or anything you may recognize, and the song "Full Circle" is by Miley Cyrus. Plus, I don't own the idea of the bottom of the trench being an underwater cavern… actually, I got that from one of the drawings of the Temple of Warriors in my _Indiana Jones: the Ultimate Guide _book. The Temple of Warriors is where he went at the beginning of _Raiders _to find the Chachapoyan idol.

Please leave a review – _this time_, they'll make me update faster ;) I love you guys so much, and I can't thank you all enough. Anonymous reviews are accepted, but please - _no flames._

Review responses to:

_**Melody -**_ Happy Halloween to you too! :) And although I partially repaired their relationship… it's still a bit frayed at the edges ;) I love hearing from you, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
><em><strong>merlincrazy<strong>_ – it's so great to hear from you. Sorry Sallah didn't appear here - things didn't go as planned - but he WILL be in the next chapter. I promise :D

_**Lydily**_ - aww, merci beaucoup pour vos mots d'inspiration :) j'aime quand vous laissez les comments (je ne sais pas le mot pour "comment" ou "review" en français, heeheehee)! J'espère que vous avez aimé ce chapitre aussi.  
>School and life is going well, thank you :) I hope yours is the same! The only problem is that it's a bit overwhelming… and that's why my updates are so slow :( I moved to a new school, you see, and the workload and classes are <em>much<em> different.  
><em><strong>Druid Archer:<strong>_ aww, that's too bad :( try and remember! Haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you leave another review ;) by the way, have I ever told you that I really like your penname? Haha sorry, that was random :P  
><em><strong>MandaPanda89:<strong>_ It's so wonderful to hear from you :) and I hope you liked this chapter too! Thanks so much for the compliments :D  
><em><strong>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x:<strong>_ That was a seriously awesome review. Just saying. Thanks so much for reviewing; I hope this chapter satisfied your creepy hairless cat enough so that it won't eat me ;) actually, on second thought, it's okay if he comes over. I have a German Shepard :P  
><em><strong>RogueMetamorph<strong>_: long reviews - like yours - are the best things in my life right now :) and sorry Madie didn't blow up just like you - and I - expected. But trust me, this won't be the last you hear of this fight between them :) wait, why am I putting a happy face? This is bad news! And I hope I gave you a bit more insight into what Madie's parents are like. Obviously, there will eventually be a big standoff thingie. And who knows? Maybe I'll use your "Shut up, Paul" line ;) and jeez, I get it! I suck at updating! _But_… I am currently working on a master plan, during which I will update _once a week_! Yayyyyy! Just give me a week or two to actually work it out :) plus, I do have to admit that my lack of updates is simply due to laziness and too much homework, not writer's block. I already have the entire story planned out (heeheehee).

That's it, folks! Please leave a review and let me know how I'm doing. _RogueMetamorph_ and _x XRoweenaJAugustineX x_, I give you permission to put away your frying pans and creepy hairless cats… because the next update should be in (roughly) a week! Rejoice!

There will be a virtual party if I manage to do so :D

Until next time! 3

- Alexa


	9. Paradise

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 9:_ Paradise_

_Life goes on, it gets so heavy, the wheel breaks the butterfly/every tear a waterfall/in the night, the_ _stormy night, she'll close her eyes/in the night, the stormy night, away she'd fly and dream_

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

I scrambled out of the side cavern and cupped my hands over my mouth, yelling towards where I knew Indiana would be, up above. "Hey, Indy!" I shouted. "We need a pen and a paper to write on down here! Plus, a light would be nice!"

I heard a scuffle, and then Indiana's gruff shout came echoing down at me. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll pass them down on the end of my whip."

Moments later, a small bundle of cloth hung before my face, attached to the whip. Indy had wrapped a flashlight, a pen, and a notebook up in Femi's scarf.

Untying it quickly, I crawled back into the side cavern, where Mutt was still sitting, dumbstruck. I guess you could say that we had worked through most of our problems… but it was still the big one that hadn't been resolved.

I knew he was holding back on me about something, too. Now I just needed to figure out what it was.

I passed Mutt the flashlight to hold and shine over my work while I copied whatever was on the wall down into the notebook. On the wall were symbols that were unmistakably hieroglyphics, and I found myself wishing I had payed more attention in archaeology class when Indy had explained about them.

Almost all of the book was already filled with writing - writing that wasn't Indiana's. I spotted a few pictures of what looked like the Cup of Christ, otherwise known as the Holy Grail; I knew Indiana had succeeded in finding that when he was younger, so I thought that maybe this notebook was a diary of some sort. But the entire thing was filled with unfamiliar handwriting, and everything had to do with the Grail.

Near the end, though, things changed. The writing looked newer, fainter, and shakier, as if the person writing it hadn't had much time or strength. I was about to pass over it without a second thought when I noticed something strange.

The symbols on the back pages of the book were identical to the hieroglyphics on the wall.

"Whose book is this?" I asked Mutt, turning towards him slightly. He looked down at it and shrugged helplessly.

"I dunno. I've never seen it before."

"You mean to say…" I trailed off, "that even though it's your father's book… you have never, ever seen him with it?" Mutt nodded, and I paled. "Then… what if it's _not_ his book?"

He tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean, babe?"

"This isn't his writing!" I stated loudly, panicking. "Do you think someone's holding them captive, and they simply passed their own book down to stall us from getting out quickly?"

My frightened eyes locked onto Mutt's big brown ones, and then we both shot towards the exit, scrambling to be the first out.

Mutt shoved the flashlight into my hands and then jumped out head-first, into the water. Now that I had a light, I couldn't help but notice he didn't have a shirt on… and damn, did he look good.

I slipped out a bit more gracefully, being careful to keep the flashlight, the book and the pen above the water. Whether or not it was Indy's book, it still had the hieroglyphics in it.

"Mom!" Mutt shouted up loudly, in a hoarse voice. Fear gripped my heart when only silence returned the call… that was, of course, until Marion actually _did_ respond.

"What do you want, Henry?" she said in her typically annoyed tone.

Both Mutt and I sighed in relief. "Whoops. False alarm," I mumbled sheepishly, blushing. We floated in the cold water calmly, contemplating our next move - when suddenly, the horrific sound of cracking stone reached our ears.

"Mutt?" I asked, my voice cracking and raising in pitch. "What's that?"

His response was cut off by a swirling _whoosh_ of water, tumbling out of a huge hole that had just cracked open in the side of the cavern. I had to clutch on to one of the ledges with the skulls on them to avoid being swept away by the strong current, but Mutt wasn't so lucky. He got a face full of the salty water before he could react.

_Salty_ water.

It was the sea that was rushing in.

Once my greaser bobbed back to the surface, I swam over to him immediately and clutched at him for support. In the end, I managed to lock my arms around his head in a vice grip, and squeeze my legs around his bare torso. I was all but climbing on top of him.

"Doll," he grumbled, trying to push the folds of my sopping wet romper fabric out of his face, "let go."

"I-I have to-to take care of the b-book," I stuttered. Well, that, and the fact that I hated water and had a fear of drowning in it.

No biggie.

The water level in the cavern started to rise, and slowly but steadily, we rose back to the top level that Mutt's family and the Arabs were standing on. I hoped that the water would stop filling up the tunnels there, but it didn't - no, instead it just kept going.

As soon as I was on my feet on the solid ground beside Marion (looked like Indiana hadn't needed to execute a giant escape plan after all), she passed me Mutt's leather jacket. Looking at it curiously, she summed it up in a quick sentence: "Mutt's got his shirt, and you'll die of cold if you don't put something warm on. Just take the jacket."

I did, and shrugged into it quickly, tucking the notebook into an inside pocket where it would stay dry. The leather jacket smelled like grease and leather (what a surprise), but they were Mutt smells - smells I missed.

I heard Femi scream moments before a huge chunk of wall fell away, and more water started rushing in and flooding the tunnel. The way we had come in was now blocked by the stone and water, so there was only one choice of where to go: forwards.

Indiana swung himself and Marion across the now water-filled chasm with ease. The rest of us, though, were not so lucky: we had to swim. I almost managed to jump all the way across, but still ended up in the water; climbing back onto Indy's level quickly, I noticed both Abbas and Alfie had decided to take the easy route and just swim.

Mutt, though, was being detained. A terrified Femi clutched to his arm, complaining about how she would get all wet, or something. I swear that, in the end, she wouldn't have swum if _Mutt_ hadn't convinced her to do it.

I was starting to hate that girl more and more.

By the time everyone had made it to our side, the water was at knee-height. If we didn't get moving soon, we'd drown.

Just as I thought that, an entire _wall_ gave way to the sea, and water came crashing in. A huge wave was starting to bear down on us by the time Indiana managed to find his voice and shout "_RUN_!"

And so we did.

We ran like hell from that wave, sloshing through the water that was already on the ground and slowing down our feet. Mutt grabbed my hand, and for once this trip, I didn't object. As much as I hated to admit it, his touch was comforting.

A powerful surge of water overtook my legs - it wasn't the great wave we were running from, but rather just a strong pull of water - and knocked me over. I slipped underwater, rolling and twisting in the waves, before managing to come back up for air.

My lungs were burning, and I coughed as Mutt squeezed my hand. He had gone under, too, when the surge had hit, and he was now desperately trying to get seawater out of his eyes with one hand. The water level was so high now that it was at chest-level, and I found myself swimming in it, rather than standing.

"We've lost the others," Mutt coughed, as we were swept down a tunnel by the current. I looked around in horror to see that he was right; we were the only two I could see. Groaning, I ducked back under the water again so I could flip the hair out of my eyes and try and see better.

And yet, when I came back up again - nothing. The only person in sight was Mutt.

Just as there was another surge of water, I noticed a tunnel off to the side of where we were - a tunnel going up. Clutching Mutt's hand tightly in mine, I reached for the iron ladder attached to the side of the tunnel. My fingers just barely managed to catch on.

Using all my strength - which unfortunately wasn't much - I managed to drag my greaser back through the water and towards the metal ladder in the tunnel leading upwards. He gripped it tightly in both hands, letting go of mine, but then pulled me up out of reach of the water's churning waves.

Coughing and sputtering, we began to climb the ladder up to where I could see a bit of light shining through a gate. My hands were trembling from the cold, and my lungs literally felt like they were shaking in my chest.

At the top of the ladder, I had to get Mutt to help me move the grate covering the hole out of the way. It was heavy and made of iron, but luckily for us, it wasn't screwed in or attached to anything.

We climbed out of the tunnel and left the sound of rushing, angry water behind us as we emerged in a small, dark room. There wasn't much in it - just a table and a few chairs.

Mutt ran over to the only door in the room as soon as he had regained his breath. Trying the doorknob, he realized it was locked; my greaser grabbed one of the chairs and smashed it against the door handle, which broke off. He was then able to open the door, much to my relief.

We rushed through the door into an ornately decorated room. The walls were painted a light beige color, and along the walls were tapestries and gold objects. In the centre of the room was a huge table that could easily fit twenty or more people. Covering it was a map of Egypt, and all over the map were tiny markings done in red and black pen.

The room was in absolute chaos, though. Multiple people were running around, yelling at each other in Arabic and screaming. Red lights flashed overhead; warning lights. Either they had been set off by our intrusion into the lighthouse, or by the water that was claiming the underground.

My eyes widened in horror as I recognized the words embroidered on the suits of the people running around, and the symbols splashed across every surface: everywhere I looked something said "Sons of Talib."

We were in the lion's den.

Suddenly, someone bowled into me and knocked me over. Mutt managed to catch me by the elbows before I could fall, and he helped me to my feet as the person stopped to apologize.

He had a crisp white suit on, and a dark, scruffy beard that complimented his tanned skin. The man was wearing a red hat, too, and after saying something in Arabic, he stopped and looking us over.

"You are not Sons of Talib," he muttered. "What are you Americans doing here? Stupid Sons; capturing innocent tourists! We need to get you out of here before you get hurt!" he cried, before grabbing my upper arm and Mutt's shoulder, and pushing us out of the room.

We stumbled down tunnels and hallways, blindly being led by the Egyptian man. I could hear screams as the sea started to rush into the Sons of Talib base, engulfing control rooms and stations. Thoughts of the fates of the others flitted through my mind, but I pushed them away; I didn't have time to worry about them. Right now, I could only afford to concentrate on myself, no matter how selfish it was.

We came to a fork in the pathway, and the Egyptian man pushed us to the right. "This way!" he shouted, as our feet carried us as fast as we could go. "I've been trapped as a prisoner down here for long enough to know the basic layout of this building! As a matter of fact, I was just about to put my escape plan into action when the red warning lights went off!"

…Prisoner? This man couldn't be Indiana's elusive friend Sallah… could he?

"Why are you two American youngsters trapped in a morbid place like this?" he shouted as we turned down another hallway, sprinting our fastest. A huge chunk of wall exploded mere feet in front of us, and water rushed in; screaming, I turned on my heel and followed Mutt down a small side hall.

"What do you mean?" Mutt shouted over the din.

"I mean," the Egyptian huffed, "the Sons of Talib usually don't take prisoners unless they have a valid reason. Me? They thought I could be of use to their archaeological expedition. Fat of a lot good that did them; I knew nothing about what they wanted. But what about you two? Have they finally stooped to the criminal level in which they just kidnap random tourists?"

"Er…" I started. "Well, you see… we kind of came here… voluntarily, I guess."

A thick metal door loomed up in front of us. The Egyptian man ran up to a small keypad attached to the wall beside the door; he quickly typed in a code.

"Spying on the guards can get you really far in this place," he winked at me as the door slid open. We were blinded by bright, vibrant sunlight; stepping into the open, I revelled in the smells of dust and sand. We had made it outside safely - and without being captured.

We had exited into a small Egyptian tourist market of some sort, and the crappy little tourist stands and shops were bustling with energetic foreigners. A few people turned to stare at our group curiously, but no one made any comments.

All of a sudden, I felt Mutt's arms wrap around me, and then he was crushing my body to his, and kissing my lips hungrily. I responded just as enthusiastically; he ran a hand through my wet hair and held me closer, practically squeezing the life out of me.

The Egyptian man whistled, sticking his hands in his pant pockets and rocking back on his heels. "Ah… young love. So sweet; so simple. We need more of it in this world. Oh, _a British tar is a soaring soul_," he began to sing, "_as free as a mountain bird_."

I pulled away from my greaser, but kept my hands on both sides of his face. "Mutt!" I exclaimed breathlessly. "What was… what was that for?"

Before he could respond, the singing Arab cut him off. "Mutt. That's a funny name," he laughed jovially. "Sounds like a dog's name. Although, I guess that's not _that_ uncommon… I once had a best friend named after a dog… Indiana. Indiana Jones." He then turned on his heel, hands still in his pockets and whistling a tune. My guess is that his intent was to walk away - but instead, he walked right into the very man he had just been speaking of.

Indiana Jones.

"Speak of the devil!" the Egyptian clutched Indy on both his upper arms, shaking him. "Is it really you, Indy? We haven't spoken for over twenty years!"

"Sallah," Indiana smiled in relief, reaching out and pulling him into a huge bear hug. The two men stood there chuckling and patting each other on the back, before a small "hem-hem" sounded from behind Indy.

"You brought Marion!" Sallah exclaimed in ecstasy, reaching out and touching one of her curls. Her sun-kissed face smiled, and she kissed him on the cheek.

"It's great to see you!" she exclaimed. "I've missed you Sallah; really. It's too bad we haven't been able to talk or communicate in the past few years."

"Yes, yes," he nodded, smiling all the while. "Now… wait just one minute. Since when have you two been together again?"

Marion blushed. "Since… him," she pointed an accusing finger at Mutt.

Indy, Marion and Sallah all turned to face Mutt, who still had his arms locked around me. I dropped my hands from his face, but stayed snuggled in his arms, pulling the leather jacket tighter around me.

Sallah's jaw practically hit the floor; he could have caught flies in there. "_WHAT?_ Indy… Marion… noooo," he said in a tone that was part awe, part disbelief.

Indiana looked at his wife sheepishly, and took her hand gently. "Sorry you weren't invited to the wedding, bub."

The look on his face was priceless.

**XxXxX**

Two hours later, I was sitting on a bus to Cairo with the Jones family, Sallah, Abbas, Femi, and Alfie. The latter three had been found just a few yards away, drenched and outside of a different exit to the lighthouse.

The reason it had taken to hours to organize ourselves and get on a public bus was because there had been a _lot_ of explaining to do. Firstly, Indiana had needed to explain to Sallah his relationship - and wedding - with Marion. And once that was over, and Sallah's disbelief had subsided, Indy had moved into an entirely different game of explaining: Mutt, his son.

Sallah was still staring at my greaser like he was about to grow a tail and start eating the bus seat.

There was so much more to explain, though, and I was grateful for the 3 hour bus ride back to Sallah's place. Not only did someone need to explain to me what, exactly, that underground place had been, but also how Marion, Indiana, and the Arabs had gotten out. Plus, I didn't understand the notebook Indiana had given me - which had miraculously stayed dry (I had kept it in a sealed pocket in Mutt's leather jacket, which I was still wearing) - and why the hieroglyphics in it had matched the ones on the wall _exactly_. I still wanted to learn what they said, too.

There was also the matter of what to do now that we had found and rescued Sallah (well, more like _he_ had found and rescued _us_), and how to deal with my angry parents.

As if that wasn't enough, Mutt and I were still (sort of) in a fight. To top it off, no one had introduced _me_ to Sallah yet!

Life just kept getting more complicated by the minute.

Well, first things first… we could really only do one thing at a time, so we may as well start ticking things off the list.

"How did you guys get out of there, exactly?" I wondered aloud, glancing at Marion and Alfie, who were sitting beside each other. Somehow, Indiana had overlooked _me,_ but managed to introduce the delusional brother and sister and our tour guide to Sallah.

Marion ran a hand over her pants, smoothing the wrinkles out. "Not long after you and Mutt went under, I was consumed by a wave, as well. Indiana pulled me out using his whip, and together we managed to locate a door on the side of the wall. The door lead outside into that tiny marketplace, and not long after, you two appeared with Sallah."

"The same happened to my brother and Abbas and me," Femi added in an overly-helpful voice. "We got lucky."

"Yeah, well, we ended up having to climb up a ladder into this… place," Mutt said is a gruff voice. He turned to Sallah uncomfortably (the Egyptian was still staring unabashedly at the greaser) and posed the next question I would have asked. "What was that place?"

Sallah snapped out of his stupor and smiled warmly at the young man. "Well, my boy, it _used_ to be one of the main operating headquarters for the Sons of Talib. Now that you've destroyed it, though, I doubt it'll be of much use," he chuckled. "I was kidnapped a while back because the Sons thought I had information on Ramla, an ancient Egyptian cat who could see the future-"

"We know the stories," Indy grumbled. "Why did they think you had info?"

He shrugged. "I was just investigating some rumours, really. After not going on an adventure for quite some time, I was getting restless, besides the fact I'm so much older now," he laughed good-naturedly. "Searching through clues to the mysterious Ramla reminded me of the old days." He grinned at Indy, slinging his arm around his old friend. "It's such an honour to see you again. What brought you to Egypt?"

After a long explanation of all the events leading up to the present, Sallah nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you, for what you did. Truly, Indiana, I couldn't have asked for better friends."

My college professor just shrugged the compliment off. "So the Sons of Talib were holding you captive in a secret base in the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, because they wanted to get information out of you about Ramla?"

"Pretty much, yes. Although "captive" is a rather strong word. I had free run of the place, and I could do whatever I wanted… except leave, or contact the outside world. The only people who had ever been in that place with me had been Egyptians working for the Sons. That's why I assumed that you two must've been captives as well, when I saw you," he nodded at Mutt and I. "Pardon my asking, miss, but I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your name?" he said to me with a warm smile on his face.

I found myself liking this friendly man more and more. "Madie Clarke," I reached out to shake his hand, and he grasped mine firmly, giving it one of those energetic-but-gentle shakes.

"And your relation to Indy is… a niece, perhaps? Or a married daughter? Maybe the child of someone who spearheaded one of Indy's adventures? I couldn't help but notice that your last name was different."

I blushed, and my eyes flickered to Mutt nervously. "Er, no, actually… I'm one of Indy's archaeology students at the college, and, uh… immuttsgirlfriend," I muttered the last part really quickly and softly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

Mutt gently took my hand as I sighed. "I'm Mutt's girlfriend. We've been dating for roughly three months." And then, right then and there, I realized that my relationship with my greaser _was_ getting better. Just the simple gesture of him reaching out to hold my hand seemed to change my perspective on everything. We were slowly but surely fixing things.

Sallah smiled at us in his big, jovial way that reminded me a bit of Santa Claus. "Oh, right. I had forgotten that you two were kissing right where we escaped. Well, it's wonderful to see two people so in love at such a young age… so sure of yourselves." Both my greaser and I blushed furiously at this; was it really that obvious how much we loved each other, even though we were treading on broken glass at the moment? Maybe our feelings didn't seem quite so apparent to us… but they did seem apparent to Sallah. And I already liked - and trusted - this guy.

We rode on the bus in silence for a few minutes, before I pulled out the tiny notebook from Mutt's leather jacket pocket. I was still wearing it, and my slightly damp and wavy hair was curling over the collar. The smells of leather and grease were probably rubbing off on me - not that I minded.

I was going to ask Indy about the book, but when I looked up and saw him deep in an intense conversation with Sallah, I chose to keep my mouth shut. Leaning my head against Mutt's shoulder, we flipped through the book together, skimming over random pages. Mostly everything had to do with the Holy Grail.

"The Three Challenges…" I murmured softly, stopping on a page and smoothing out the crinkles. "The Breath of God… the Word of God… and the Path of God. Hmm. Interesting," I muttered, before flipping to another page labelled "Canyon of the Crescent Moon."

Later, Mutt and I made it to the back of the book, where the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics had been inscribed in the same writing as the rest of the tiny notebook.

"They're only nine phrases," Mutt pointed out. "Look. This top one says something about the 'resting places of Ramla…' and here, the one below it says 'Well of Souls.'"

I looked up at him incredulously. "Since when have you been able to read hieroglyphics? I thought you only spoke English and Spanish, not ancient Egyptian."

He shrugged. "I don't. I just payed attention during that portion of my dad's class."

"Whoa… you actually payed _attention_ in school?" I teased.

"Shut up," he grinned, nuzzling his nose in my hair. "I pay attention to _you_."

With Mutt's help (okay, well, it was more like Mutt was doing the entire thing) we deciphered the other seven phrases.

"So… this one is Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza," I pointed to some symbols at the top of the page, "and this one is the Sphinx."

"The next three mention the Ramses II Temple, the Valley of the Kings, and some random obelisk."

"The second-to-last has the name of another temple…" I frowned, my finger hovering over the very last phrase. "But neither of us can figure out what this one says."

Mutt shrugged, kissing my temple. "Guess we'd better leave that one up to the big guns, huh?"

And just like that, things were back to normal. There may have been rumblings beneath the surface, but for now, they were ignorable. And that was more than I had even dared hope for.

**XxXxX**

**A/N:** Okay, okay, so I'm two days later than I promised... but I still updated a _lot _faster! Yay! :)

No idea when the next update will be, but I'm hoping it'll come soon. I also have to other stories to work on, so... things can get a little hectic.

I don't own anything you may recognize, and I don't own Indiana Jones. Plus, the song at the beginning is by Coldplay, not me.

The song that Sallah sings in this chapter is the same one that he sings in _Raiders. _I hope you're all happy Sallah's here.

Please let me know in a review whether or not the explanation at the very end made sense. Or just review, period. I've actually been having a pretty bad week, so reviews or comments would really brighten my day.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the last chapter. I did notice that I was missing a few regular reviewers... but it's okay, as long as you review this chapter ;) Here are the review responses:

_**MandaPanda89:**_Thank you so much! I really appreciate it :D and I'm hoping to hear from you again; I can always count on you to leave a comment!  
><em><strong>Merlincrazy: <strong>_I hope you're happy that Sallah's in this chapter ;) and thanks for reviewing all the time! It means a lot to me, and I certainly hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
><em><strong>SerenityAngels: <strong>_I don't think I've heard from you before! And there, I updated ;) it's great to hear from new people all the time!  
><em><strong>x XRoweenaJAugustineX x: <strong>_Ahaha, "witch" is the perfect word for Femi. And say goodbye to Fluffy for me! ;) You're one of my best reviewers, so thank you a ton! It's wonderful to always hear from you.  
><em><strong>camilia85560: <strong>_Ah, vous avez retourné! C'est fantastique! Merci pour tout ce que vous avez dit (et, si-vous-plait, excusez mon français: c'est horrible) :O Oui, Femi est folle! Elle est une fesse :P À la prochaine!

Thanks so much to everyone who reads this, and i hope you all enjoyed this chapter! :D  
>-Alexa Blaze<p> 


	10. Miss Nothing

**A/N:** Hello. It's me again. I'm back.

I realize it's been over a month (I think), and I'm truly sorry for that. My New Year's Resolution is to update this story faster - I'm planning on just writing the whole thing, and then posting a new chapter every week. But, for the time being, think of this chapter as a Christmas present. Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, simply as an end-of-the-year present ;)

Happy Holidays! I hope they turn out to be everything you guys imagined :) and I hope you like this chapter, as well. It took me a long time to get around to, and I managed to set up a new arc (or two) in the story.

Please leave a review, even if it's just to let me know you're still around. I got a tremendously wonderful amount of feedback last chapter, so thank you guys so, so much! Between all the amazing reviews and the astounding amount of people who suddenly added this to their "Favourite" and "Alert" lists, I feel like the luckiest person alive!

So, as my only request . . . please leave a review! Think of it as a Christmas present to me :D Plus, _WE'RE ALMOST AT A HUNDRED REVIEWS_! Can we make it before the New Year? That would really make my _life_. This would be the first story where I've ever made it to 100 while it was still in progress. I just want to thank you all for supporting me with this story, and sticking with me, even though I'm an inconsistent updater. But I want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart!

I don't own Indiana Jones or the song at the beginning, which is "Miss Nothing" by The Pretty Reckless (one of my favourite bands).

Oh, and I promised I'd keep you guys updated on any new Indiana Jones movie news. Well, there has been a (slight) development. There has been a lot of back-and-forth between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, meaning neither of them seem to be on the same page. Spielberg said "We've already agreed on the genre and the concept of the fifth movie," but Lucas has stated that "I don't have it yet . . . I have the storyline, but not the MacGuffin [the object that the movie revolves around, e.g. the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the Crystal Skull]. I mean, I know what it's about, we just have to find a MacGuffin that fits into the arena we're working in." When asked whether or not Indy's "extended family" would play a part in the new movie, Lucas just laughed and said "Yeah . . . we'll see." So, what do you guys think of all this? Do you think they should make another movie? Please let me know in a review! :)

As for reviews . . . responses are at the bottom. Please enjoy this chapter, and tell me what you think!

- Lexi

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 10: _Miss Nothing_

_And as I watch you disappear into the ground/my one mistake was that I never let you down/so I'll waste my time and I'll burn my mind/I'm Miss Nothing, I'm Miss Everything_

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

"Hey! Gramps!" Mutt cut into Indy's conversation with Sallah rudely. I sighed; sometimes he could be a bit ignorant towards others.

Sallah didn't mention the interruption, though, as he turned towards us curiously. Indiana crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at his son pointedly, obviously wanting him to go on.

"We have to get off the bus at Giza," he said, and I looked at him with a confused smile on my face. What was he going on about? "The hieroglyphics in that tiny cave that Madie and I went in said that, in order to find Ramla, we had to go to Giza."

"Who said we were even going to continue trying to find Ramla?" Indy asked curiously, fixing his hat more firmly onto his head.

Mutt blanched. "Well, I-I, I just _assumed_ . . ."

"The whole reason we came here was to find Sallah. We never meant to get mixed up in this mystery. At first, I thought that if we found Ramla, we would find Sallah. But since we've already _found _him . . ."

"I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here!" Sallah suddenly exclaimed, turning to Indy and smiling. "This same thing happened when you came to Egypt to find your father! You told him that the entire point of flying out to Africa was the find him and bring him home – but then you two stayed and found the Grail!" he winked.

Indiana snorted, and sunk lower in his seat, tilting his hat over his eyes and signalling that he didn't want to talk about this. Sallah used this distraction to wave frantically at us, trying to convey the message that we were supposed to start grovelling.

"Oh, please, Indy!" I started, while Mutt and Sallah started yelling at the archaeologist at the same time. "Think of how important it'll be to Egyptian history if you find Ramla! It'll be one of the greatest archaeological find of the century! And what a big impact the Sons of Talib might have on the world if _they _find it first! You know you want to continue this adventure. And don't even give us that crap about it being too dangerous – we've been through worse. Probably. Besides, we _found _Sallah – so we need a new goal! I don't want to get home yet. Sallah got captured while trying to find Ramla . . . so let's finish what he started! Pick up where he left off!"

Indiana grunted, and all three of us shut up, waiting for his final verdict. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he looked out from underneath his hat brim.

"Fine. We'll get off in Giza."

"Yes!" I cried, jumping forwards and hugging my professor. He grunted again, but this time, I could see that he was smiling. "We're supposed to go to the pyramids," I mentioned, to try and clear up the specifics. "The Pyramid of Khufu, to be exact."

We sat in silence for the rest of the ride. I stared out the window at the sands blowing across the desert, and the occasional town with Arabs skittering around, minding their own business and going through the motions of their daily lives. More than once, I tried to summon up the courage to ask Indiana about the notebook, but I never managed to say anything. Something made me rip the page with the hieroglyphics out of the notebook, though. I don't really know why, but something just possessed me to do it. I shoved it in my pocket when no one was watching, feeling like a thief. I guess I did it because I wanted to feel important to the adventure – not just some dead weight. If I had the paper, then I was of _some_ value, right?

**XxXxX**

"I never realized the pyramids were so . . ."

"Astounding? Inspirational? Majestic? Awesome? Motivational? Powerful? Important?"

". . . big."

Indiana rolled his eyes at me. I mean, I may have been an archaeologist in training, but really, the only word I had to describe the Great Pyramid of Giza was _big_, while Indiana could figure out a hundred different words that were probably a lot better than that. He was looking deeper into the history than I was. But I mean, seriously . . . there was no way to get around how _vast _the pyramids were.

All the pictures I had seen had never truly captured the sheer size of the pyramids. Photos made them seem . . . tiny, I guess . . . compared to what they really were. I could've swore they scraped the sky, and as I stood at the base of them, I had to lean all the way back in order to see the top.

We had quickly embarked at the station at Giza, and headed straight here, to the pyramids, as fast as we could. Obviously, Sallah wanted to get home to his family as soon as his possible, but we had decided to make this stop first, hoping it would be quick.

We had been standing at the base of the biggest pyramid for what felt like forever before Mutt started marching forwards. "Are we just going to wait around here, or what? I don't know about you guys, but I actually want to go _inside, _rather than gaping at the exterior."

Marion and Indy exchanged an incredulous glance. "Mutt actually _wants _to go inside an ancient structure?" Marion gasped.

"Well, duh. It's hot out here."

I rolled my eyes and trailed after him slowly, trying to memorize all the details of the pyramid. We had to climb up a few of the limestone blocks in order to get to the entrance, but that was fine by me – it meant I could actually _touch _the stone that the ancient Egyptians had touched so many centuries ago.

It was cool and dry inside the pyramid, and the intense dryness in the air made the inside of my nose itch. Trailing a hand along the wall to my left, I climbed the dusty and sandy steps, deeper into the great stonework.

"So . . . what exactly are we looking for?" I asked Mutt, hurrying to catch up with him. "The notebook doesn't say anything about what we are supposed to find, nor does it pinpoint exactly _where _in this pyramid it's going to be hiding."

"Examine the book again, doll," he said to me without looking back over his shoulder. "It might say something in there, on a page that we missed."

I knew he was wrong, though. In the silence that had followed our attempts to convince Indy not to give up on the adventure, I had thoroughly gone over the book – and the page I had ripped out – countless times. I probably had the page that was shoved in my pocket memorized by now.

I only realized then that I was still wearing Mutt's leather jacket. "Here," I said, shrugging out of it. "I don't need it anymore." _Though I don't exactly want you to put it on yourself – those are some damn nice arm muscles you've got going on, Mutt_, I added silently in my head.

Almost as if he read my mind, he stuck out his hand and pressed the jacket back into my chest. "It's alright, baby," he said. "I don't need it. You can hold on to it for a while longer, if you want."

"If you say so," I frowned, and then put the jacket back on again. The outside was black leather, with his name stitched in silver over the left breast, and numerous pins on the lower right-sided lapel. The inside of the jacket was a warm and smooth red fabric of some sort. Whenever I moved it, I got a fresh whiff of leather and hair grease – Mutt's smells. Breathing deeply, I continued on after him in the passage into the pyramid.

The stone passageway wore the marks of countless tourists, but the magic of one of the most ancient structures ever – and one of the Ancient Wonders of the World – shone through brightly. I realised that I had just visited two of the Ancient Wonders in one day – this pyramid, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

As I climbed up a ladder in one of the passageways, Indiana tapped me lightly on my shoulder to get my attention. "Do you still have that book I gave you?" he asked, looking up at me with his surprisingly bright eyes. I nodded, chewing on my lip and wondering if he would notice the missing page when I gave it back to him.

"Where'd you get it, Indy? Is it yours?" I questioned as we stepped off the ladder, and continued down a passage that we had to duck in, in order to avoid hitting our heads on the ceiling.

"No," he frowned. "It was my father's."

"Was?"

"He died in July."

"Oh. I'm sorry," I turned to him to give the older man a sympathetic look. "July of . . . this year?" He nodded. "Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. I guess the wound of his passing is still fresh, huh?"

Indy shrugged. "We weren't that close. I went on an adventure with him to find the Holy Grail, and after that we vowed to try and understand one another better . . . you see, we would go years and years without speaking . . ." he trailed off.

"But you never really managed to keep to that promise after your adventure?" I tried to finish for him.

"Precisely. I mean, we did have a better rapport after finding the Grail, but it still wasn't an ideal father-son relationship."

This made me stop and think (well, not literally stop; if I had done that, Indy would have walked into me). I didn't know if Indy realised it, but the same sort of thing was happening with him and Mutt. For me, that was the last thing I wanted. I loved Indiana, and I was in love with Mutt. It wouldn't do for them to always both be fighting over everything.

"Indy . . ." I started, trailing off. How was I supposed to phrase this? "You and Mutt . . ."

The old archaeologist started laughing. "Yes, yes, Madie. I know. Don't worry. I need to make more of an effort to reach out to him, unless I want us to end up like me and _my _dad."

"I can imagine I'd be hard," I smiled to myself, glad that Indy already realised it and wasn't offended by what I had said. "I mean, you were absent for, what, nineteen years of his life?"

Indy nodded. "I know. And I regret that. But hopefully, I can make it up to him somehow." I shifted in Mutt's leather jacket and looked forwards to make sure that my greaser was far enough away so that he couldn't hear us. "But . . . can I please have my notebook back? It's one of the few things I have left of my father's, and I carry it around as a memory of him."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure," I stumbled over my words. Now that I thought about it, I realised that everything in that tiny book, excluding the strange hieroglyphics at the back, had to do with the Holy Grail. It must have been like a map that Indiana had followed with his father.

Fumbling through the pocket of the leather jacket, I pulled the book out carefully and handed it to my professor, hoping he wouldn't notice the missing pages. "It was his Grail Diary, as he called it," Indiana explained about the notebook. "He put nothing in there but his research about the Grail. That was his lifelong passion, you see."

I frowned. Something didn't add up. What about the hieroglyphics? Surely, they didn't have anything to do with the Grail. "Did you kids write anything in there?" Indy asked, tucking the book into the leather satchel that rested on his hip.

"No . . ." I said slowly, deciding not to explain about the hieroglyphics just yet. "Tell me, did your father ever travel to Egypt?"

"Quite a few times," Indiana said bluntly. "When I was younger, we-"

"Did he come before he died?" I cut him off. I honestly didn't _want _to stop Indiana from telling me about his childhood – I was very confident it would be an enlightening and interesting story – but I was trying to figure something out here.

"Strange that you mention that, because yes, he did," Indiana frowned. "He died here, actually. It was in an airplane crash, when he was heading home." His eyes clouded over. "I've been thinking a lot about his death since we came here. I mean, how could I not? He was my own father. It's only natural that just walking around these streets reminds me of him. To think, he was here only a few months ago, alive and healthy . . ."

Something wasn't making sense in his story – or rather, there were too many pieces of missing information. "How did you get his Grail Diary back, then? Considering that he never made it home?"

"Someone sent me all his belongings," he shrugged. "I just assumed that it was everything the airport officials had scavenged up in the crash wreckage."

I found it odd that Indiana hadn't investigated earlier into this mysterious lack of information, but maybe he had been overcome with grief and lack of motivation to do it. Nevertheless, I knew that something was wrong about his story. How did Indy's father get those hieroglyphics into his Grail Diary . . . and why did he "die," or at the very least go missing, a few days after?

We arrived in the Queen's Chamber after a few more short minutes. Our huge group – me, Indy, Mutt, Marion, Sallah, Abbas, Femi, and Alfie – could hardly fit into the room alongside the other tourists.

"Where do we start looking for Ramla?" Femi asked, sliding up to stand beside Mutt. I didn't comment on it, though; Mutt had assured me he would never fall for any of her ridiculous antics.

"It could be anywhere," Marion sighed. "This is a pretty big pyramid." Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Femi left Mutt's side and walked towards the back wall, where one of those air shafts was blocked off by a heavy piece of stone, set there by the ancients.

"How about we split up into groups," Indiana suggested. "That way, each group can examine another part of the pyramid."

"Good idea," smiled Sallah. "I just wish that these artifacts were easy to find- FEMI! _What do you think you're doing?_"

The young Egyptian woman had smashed the stone blocking the air shaft, and was now reaching into the hole in the wall, groping around inside of it with her large hands. Mutt jumped forwards and grabbed her around the waist, trying to pull her back – but not before she had managed to take a hold of whatever it was she had been reaching for.

"What was it that you were saying about wanting artifacts that were easy to find?" she asked proudly in her heavy Arabian accent, holding out an object in the palm of her hand.

An object identical to the long black one Mutt had pulled out of the canvas painting of Ramla.

"Umm . . . wow," I couldn't help but say. "That seemed rather easy. How'd you know it was in there?"

"I did not," she shrugged. "But where else could it have been? This is practically the only place in the pyramid that has not been overrun by archaeologists - and thus, the only place where objects have gone undiscovered."

I shifted my weight from foot to foot nervously. "I gotta hand it to you, Femi . . . that was actually pretty brilliant."

"I know," she simply smiled, moving over to stand beside Mutt. She tried to link her arm through his, but he pushed her off rather violently; I had to hide a smile.

Indiana took the piece from Femi and carefully examined it to make sure it was what we were looking for, before gently giving it back to her. It was the exact same as the other piece Indiana had in his bag. I still didn't fully understand what the pieces _were_, exactly. Maybe when we had collected all the little bits, they would form a map to some sort, pointing to the resting place of Ramla?

A while later - after exploring the rest of the pyramid, of course (we couldn't let a perfectly good trip to the Great Pyramid go to waste, after all!) - we began to head back outside. If things went as planned, we'd all be back at Sallah's place within the next half an hour.

Of course, things never go as planned.

I was just leaving the chamber that we were in when I heard a scuffle and a slight scream behind me. Turning, I couldn't see anything in the shadows, so I simply continued on my path - until I realized Femi was missing.

Femi, who still had the black Ramla piece.

The thought of telling someone like Indy, Sallah or Mutt briefly crossed my mind, but only momentarily. Instead, I turned and headed up the passageway on my own, bound and determined to investigate whether or not it had been Femi's scream that I had heard.

Big mistake.

As soon as I stepped foot back in the chamber we had previously been in, someone attacked me from behind. They shoved me forwards, and I went sprawling into a display case, before tumbling to the floor. I stuck out my hands to try and stop my fall, but all I succeeded in doing was scraping them raw and bloody against the floor. With a crash, my attacker tripped over the display case himself, and came stumbling on top of me, pinning me to the floor. The breath was knocked out of my lungs, and I couldn't find the strength to move as I looked up at the face of the man who had originally shoved me. He was an Arabian man with extreme facial hair and glittering black eyes that reminded me of beetles.

With a slight screech, I tried to skitter backwards, but the man's heavy body was weighing down on my legs. Pain flared up in the one that had been shot with a poison dart when I was searching for Pandora's Box, and I gritted my teeth against the pain. It may have been an old wound, but it was a deep one.

Behind the man who had me pinned to the floor, I spotted another two figures crouching by the entranceway. One looked to be an Arab similar to my attacker. He was holding a limp female shape - the other figure - honeymoon-style. _Femi._

The man on top of me reached towards my face slowly. I couldn't tell what he was trying to do until I spotted the white funny-smelling cloth in his hand - he was going to knock me out with _drugs_!

My eyes widened as he placed the cloth over my mouth and nose, and I breathed in the smell of chloroform against my will. My hands fumbled to push the man off me, but it was too late.

I was asleep within minutes.

**XxXxX**

_Review responses to:_

_**Belle of Books:**_ Wow. I feel honoured - no sarcasm :P thank you so much! I hope to hear from you again; your words really mean a lot to me.

_**MandaPanda89:**_ Good to know _someone_ can tolerate my lateness ;) but it's great to consistently hear from you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

_**Melody:**_ I can't believe you always manage to leave a review, considering you don't have an account and can't alert this story! It means the world to me that you keep reviewing :) Glad to know you enjoyed the chapter about Madie's thoughts - I put a lot of work into that. And thanks! It means a lot when my readers mention my "problems" - it shows that you guys care about me, I guess :P so thank you so much! I hope to hear from you again, if you're still around :D and thanks for all your kind words!

_**SerenityAngels:**_ Okay, okay, I did. I'll try to do it faster next time - sound good? ;)

_**Merlincrazy:**_ Ah, my oldest reviewer. What a treat it is to still be hearing from you :D and I'm glad you like Sallah! He's one of my favourite characters, too. I'm hoping to hear from you again - you truly are my most loyal reader, and I appreciate that a lot more than I can say!

_**x XRoweenaJAugustineX x:**_ I'm guessing you'll be introducing Fluffy to me again *runs away and hides in the corner sheepishly* anyway, your review made me laugh, so thanks for that! I can see Madie going cavewoman, too xD you're right not to trust her, though . . . and that's all I'm going to say ;) I hope to hear from you again - thanks so much for sticking by me!

_**RogueMetamorph:**_ I'm glad you're back! I was wondering where my best reviewer had gone ;) I'm glad you enjoyed chapter eight, considering there wasn't any action . . . just thoughts! I really enjoyed writing that chapter, though. And, as you said, getting inside Mutt's pretty little head ;) I loved the last line of your review, though. It made me laugh xD I'm glad to see that you enjoyed the part where Sallah met Mutt - to tell you the truth, the whole story is based around that part! Well, sort of. I got that part stuck in my head, and from there, I chose the plot line. It's more or less the oldest part in the story ;) and I hope you liked what I (sort of) did when Henry's notebook . . . but trust me when I say that won't be the last you see of it! It's one of my new arcs ;) Anyways, thank you so, so much for your long reviews. I adore them, and they make me so happy (ignore how cheesy that sounds). I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. In the meantime, though, take care! I love hearing from you all the time :D

_**camilia85560:**_ Je suis contente que tu sois contente que Sallah soit de retourne! Ça me fait plaisir que tu as aimé le chapitre ;) et oui . . . le baiser était la partie du chapitre que j'ai aimé le plus! La famille Jones est une famille chanceux, oui? (est-ce que chanceux est un mot? Je ne pense pas, alors, désolée!) ;) Et, tristement, non ;( Je ne pense pas que je vais les emmener dans le temple du graal. Merci beaucoup pour ton «review»! J'aime écouter de toi - ma seule lectrice français! :D

_**lovingangel1511:**_ It's great to hear from new people, such as yourself! Your compliments mean a lot to me :) I hope you enjoy this chapter as well, and thanks for the encouragement!

_**BookGal26:**_ Aww, thanks for the compliment! And, just between you and me . . . I don't like Femi either! ;) I'm glad you like Mutt and Madie together, though - this is the first real romance I've written, so I'm glad it turned out well. I hope to hear from you again, and thank you very much for your review!

_**KrazyCookieRaider:**_ Sorry it took so long . . . but it's great to have a new reader! :) I hope you continue to read and enjoy, and I can't wait to hear from you again!

_**the one who breathes nitrogen:**_ Whoo, that was a long review :) but that's good. I _love_ long reviews. And yours was one of the best I've ever had.  
>Thank you so much for all your ConCrit. I've never actually had any before, so it was really appreciated. In a way, it opened my eyes to a lot of things ;) and thanks for making it ConCrit, rather than a flame! It really means a lot to me.<br>Alright. Regarding your suggestions about the Mutt/Indy relationship . . . thanks :) I'll definitely be thinking a lot about what you said. In a way, I sort of started it in this chapter . . . but I'm planning on elaborating, so don't worry. And I'll take a look into expanding a Marion/Indy relationship as well :)  
>As for your next comment . . . wow, I feel like such a dumbass. I completely overlooked the fact that Madie loved James beforehand xD so thank you <em>so much <em>for pointing that out. I'll definitely have Mutt bring it up. Also, you mentioned watching how I describe people when in 1st person, and thanks for that, too. It'll definitely help me improve my writing, which is what I aim to do in the long run ;)  
>Lastly, thanks for the suggestions on clothing. I have grandparents that grew up in the fifties, but I don't get much chance to talk to them about what they wore when they were younger. All I know is that girls <em>did<em> wear rompers. But I really appreciate all your clothing suggestions! :)  
>As you can (hopefully) see, I'm very, <em>VERY<em> grateful for all your suggestions (and not putting them in flame form). I'll definitely take all of them into heavy consideration. So thank you for everything you helped with! I certainly hope to hear from you again ;) plus, it's always nice to hear from new people and know that there are others reading my story! I really appreciate all you've said and done. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart :)

**XxXxX**

Thank you guys so much for all your love and support. I honestly wouldn't be here without you :D let's make it to 100 reviews! Whooo! And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

- Lexi


	11. Marry The Night

**A/N: **Feels like forever, huh? That's probably because it's practically _been _forever :( I had exams, plus other stuff. Sorry!

Happy New Year, guys! I hope you stick with me – and this story – for the rest of the year, even though I'm not a very consistent updater. Sorry about that. Anyway, I don't own Indiana Jones or the song/chapter title, which is _Marry the Night _by Lady GaGa. I don't particularly like the song, but I _do _like the line "I'm a soldier to my own emptiness," so I decided to put it in :P

_**We made it to 100 reviews! **_Actually, we made it _past _that! Thank you guys so, so, so much. It's honestly a dream come true :P I love all my reviewers and readers. Y'all make this so much more enjoyable ;) Review responses are at the bottom, as always. And a special shoutout to _Writer Wade _for reviewing every chapter in KoP! Thanks so much for all your time and for leaving compliments; it means a lot to me.

Anyway, please review this chapter! It's not my greatest – I was actually feeling like shit while I wrote it, but I needed to get this out of the way – but please review. Anonymous reviews _are _accepted, but please . . . _no flames. _How about the goal for the review number for this chapter is that we make it past the number on KoP? At the moment, it's just 122. Good luck my lovely reviewers! :D

Oh, and a special shoutout to _Belle of Books, _who was my 100th reviewer :) Thanks so much for your devotion to my story!

Anyway, enough blabbing. I now present to you . . .

**Indiana Jones and the Black Tiger-Cat**

Chapter 11: _Marry the Night_

_I'm gonna marry the night, I won't give up on my life/I'm a warrior queen, live passionately tonight/I'm gonna marry the dark, gonna make love to the stars/I'm a soldier to my own emptiness, I'm a winner_

**XxXxX**

Henry (Mutt) Jones III's POV

How could I have been so oblivious?

I only realised Femi and Madie were missing _after _everyone was out of the pyramid, blinking rapidly against the bright, sudden light that the hot sun made. When Indiana made the comment inquiring as to where they were, all eyes turned to me. I had been the one they were following in the passageway, after all.

My eyes would've widened in shock, but they were still adjusting to the bright light, so I squinted instead. "They _were _behind me . . ." I mumbled, and everyone glanced toward the entrance to the pyramid. Nothing happened; the two girls didn't suddenly stumble out quarrelling, like we had expected them to.

I swore loudly, earning a disapproving look from my mother. In the passageway, I had been so preoccupied with thoughts of Femi and my fight with Madie that I hadn't noticed their disappearance. Funny, how the two people who had been on my mind had suddenly gone missing.

Indy and Sallah accompanied me back into the pyramid, leaving the others to wait outside. Any _normal _family would have just assumed they had gotten lost, or that they were taking their time . . . but we weren't a normal family. A disappearance usually meant something much worse than getting lost.

We ran through the pyramid, checking each chamber and room hastily. After our search yielded nothing, panic started to creep up my spine. What had happened to them? Maybe they had found some sort of anti-chamber to explore, and it had accidentally sealed behind them. Or, and this option was a lot less appealing, they had been kidnapped.

I anxiously pulled my knife out of my pocket and started flipping around in my hand. Doing so had become quite the stress reliever.

Sallah, Indiana and I now stood in one of the pyramid chambers, looking around. I could almost _feel _a disturbance in the air, as if something had recently gone wrong. All of a sudden, my father crouched down in the corner of the room, examining something.

"What is it?" I asked. He was leaning over the display case of a sarcophagus, intently staring at the edge of it. Sallah strode over and saw what was wrong almost right away.

"There's blood there," he said, pointing to the corner. "You don't think . . . ?"

I knelt down beside Dad, but I put my head in my hands instead of looking at the blood. Honestly, how could I have not noticed anything? There must've been some sort of trouble, and yet, I hadn't heard a thing. My thoughts had been otherwise occupied.

I had been thinking about Madie (surprise, surprise). She had gotten all angry at me when I talked about my previous girlfriends, and Randy, the woman I used to love. But had Madie really been so blind to the fact that _she _had been in love with someone, too? Or was she just faking her affection for James, the preppy and traitor that I had met on my last adventure? I hardly believed that was the case. If she thought she had the right to be mad at me for falling for someone else _a long time ago,_ then I had the right to be upset with her for being in love with someone _while I was there. _

That wasn't the thing that was bugging me, though. I mean, really – that problem had already been "resolved." I was upset about another matter entirely.

I had finally gotten the guts to admit to myself the reason I didn't get too close to Madie physically. I may have been in love with her . . . but we were in a different situation than I had been in with Randy. Randy had been a greaser like me, and we had been content with just lazing around in a park, teasing preppies. But the pastime of Madie and I was obviously a lot more dangerous – going on life-changing trips around the world, getting kidnapped, and being shot at practically every day. And that was what worried me.

I didn't want to get too close to Madie . . . and then lose her. I knew what it felt like to think a loved one was gone forever – like when Colin, my stepfather, died, and when Oxley went missing. I was afraid of too much commitment with Madie, because I was afraid of the pain I might feel if something happened to her. I wasn't trying to protect her – I was trying to protect my heart. It was selfish, in a twisted sort of way.

I hadn't let many people in, through my nineteen years of life. Madie was one of the few who had almost completely broken through my barriers. But I didn't want her to get any closer, for fear that something horrible would happen and I wouldn't know how to handle it. By avoiding a "physical" or sexual relationship with her, I was pushing her away before she got closer.

I didn't know how to deal with it, though. What was I supposed to do? Put everything on the line and risk it all? Or play it safe, but never truly become close with the girl I loved?

Well, first things first. We had to find her – and Femi – before I could do anything about it.

Life just gets so damn complicated sometimes.

**XxXxX**

Madison (Madie) Clarke's POV

Could life get any more complicated?

I awoke in a strange, unfamiliar room that smelled like sweat and despair. Femi was in the room as well, sitting by the only window and looking out of it wistfully, playing with her knotted hair.

"Where are we?" I asked, rubbing my head where it had crashed into the display case in the pyramid. There was dried, matted blood in my hair – I must have cut myself. _Damn._

"I do not know," Femi said in a voice that clearly said _could you be any stupider?_ "How am I supposed to know? I was drugged and brought here, like you!"

I frowned at her attitude, but got up from where I was lying on the floor. I had to put aside my differences with Femi if we wanted to get out of here.

Reaching for the window to open it, she slapped my hand back. "It is bugged. Look," she said, pointing to the wires running up and down the windowsill. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it, but at least she had stopped me. I smiled at the girl thankfully, but she just gave me a disdainful look and turned back to looking out the window and the vast Arabian desert. I wondered if the others had realized we were missing yet, and whether or not they had started a search. Even if they did, I highly doubted there were any clues left behind in the pyramid as to where we had been brought. Our only hope was that they would search for – and find – a Sons of Talib base, as I was assuming it was them who had kidnapped us. As to why, though, I had no clue.

Actually, maybe I did. I was still wearing Mutt's leather jacket, and as I wandered away from Femi and closer to the only door in the room, I felt the inside pocket. Yep, the page I had torn out from Indy's book with the hieroglyphics on it was still in there.

The room we were in was very bare and sparse. The only things in it other than me, Femi, and the wooden chair that she was sitting on were a low wooden table, a wooden bench, and three candles, all lit and sitting on the table. They were tall candles, but very thin, and they illuminated a pitcher of gray, dirty water and stale bread placed upon the table.

I was just about to pull the piece of paper out of Mutt's pocket and examine it when something caught my eye, and I glanced over at the bench. Screaming, I stumbled backwards and tripped over my feet onto the floor. There was a snake – one that I recognized as a _poisonous _snake – lying on it, staring up at me.

Femi glanced at it, and horror flashed through her eyes. She climbed up onto her chair, pointing at the snake as it hissed at me, slithering closer. "_KILL IT! KILL IT!" _she screeched.

"WITH WHAT?" I screamed, scrambling to my feet and climbing on the table. The snake rolled off the bench and came closer to me, mouth open in an angry snarl and fangs bared. I gasped in terror as it started to slide up one of the table legs.

Before I could jump away, the snake was on my foot, sniffing, slithering and hissing angrily. I stayed as still as I could, breathing loudly with my heart pounding in my ears. The snake slid across my boot, its slinky body making a strange sound as it rubbed against the fabric of the shoe.

Glancing up at Femi, she made a hand motion as if to say "do something."Oh, and trust me, I _did _want to do something – I just didn't know what! The snake was a fatally poisonous one, that much I knew, and if it bit me I would be dead within the hour. I may not have had a fear of snakes – no, I had a fear of spiders – but I really didn't want this one crawling up my leg.

"Femi," I whispered, my voice trembling, "pass me your jacket. Please, just do it," I pleaded. The other girl slowly shrugged out of the brown sweater she was wearing, trying not to attract any attention from the reptile at my feet. With a gentle motion, she threw it to me. I caught it as it sailed across the space between us, holding my breath and hoping it wouldn't disturb the snake. Lucky for me, it didn't.

"Okay, Femi, please watch out," I breathed softly. "I'm going to try to . . . I'm going to try to kick or fling it across the room."

"_What?" _her accent became heavier as she panicked. "Are you _crazy?_ That will only upset it, and it might not even work, and what – what does my jacket have to do with that?"

Without answering her questions, I suddenly snapped my foot out. The poisonous reptile hissed as it slid off my shoe and went flying across the room, before crashing into the stone wall and tumbling down. Now furious, it spat, before slithering towards me faster than I thought possible.

Jumping down and swallowing my fear, I threw the jacket over the snake, momentarily blinding and confusing it. All in one motion, I grabbed the pitcher of dirty water, dumped it out, and then slammed it down on where the snake was, trapping it and the jacket between the pitcher and the floor . . . but not quite killing it. Maybe I could use it against our kidnappers – you never knew.

Glancing over at Femi, I caught a fleetingly strange look of disappointment cross her face, before it relaxed into a soft smile. "Oh, thank Allah you trapped it!" was all she said, before sitting back down on her chair and staring out of the window as if nothing had happened.

I sat on the pitcher – gently, of course (I didn't want to break or shatter it, but I wanted to keep the snake and the jacket trapped in there), and pondered our options of escape. There weren't many, and things didn't look too hopeful.

A while later, I heard voices outside of our door, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. "Femi," I whispered, "I think those – those voices are speaking Arabic. Can you understand them?" She nodded. "Well, could you translate for me? Please?"

She rolled her eyes, but got up and leaned with her ear pressed against the door anyway. The two voices that were definitely male spoke in hushed, hurried tones. Their conversation only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to make Femi's eyes widen.

"What're they saying?" I inquired, impatient because I couldn't understand what was going on.

"They said – they said that they are going to kill us," she rushed back to her chair, horrified. "They are going to kill us and take a piece of paper, or something – do you have a piece of paper? – a piece of paper with writing on it . . . writing that indicates the final resting place of Ramla."

I swore loudly. Now was definitely the time to think fast . . . but there wasn't really anything we could do . . .

My eyes rested on the candles on the table just as the men barged into the room, guns drawn.

Quite a few things happened at once. I lunged for the table – not the smartest idea – and one of the two burly Egyptians shot at me. He missed and hit the window behind Femi; she screamed, covering her ears and falling to the floor in terror. The alarm on the window went off, blaring astoundingly loudly, as glass shattered and exploded around Femi. The pitcher that had trapped the snake tipped over when I lunged, and the angry reptile slithered out of it, hissing. It jumped for my ankle, fangs bared, but luckily one of the Egyptian men shot the snake, killing it before it could bite me. I scrambled hastily to find the notebook page, ripping it out of Mutt's pocket. It took about two seconds to wave it in front of the faces of the two men, so that they knew it was the page they were looking for, before lifting the candle and burning the old and weathered piece of paper right in front of their eyes.

Within moments, it was a heap of ashes on the floor.

The men bellowed angrily, raising their guns to shoot. "_Femi!" _I called out, hoping I could rely on the girl once more. "Tell them to stop! Tell them I have a proposition to make!"

She screamed at them in Arabic, repeating what I had said. Reluctantly, the fatter of the two men pointed his gun at the floor instead of at me, and gestured to his partner to do the same.

"Um. Okay," I started nervously, putting my hands on top of my head. Oh God, I hoped this worked - it was my last chance. "Do you guys speak English?"

The two men stared at me blankly.

"Huh. Alright then . . . Femi, can you be our translator?" my voice shook.

"Y-yeah," she nodded hastily, not taking her eyes off the guns.

"Tell them that the paper I burned was the only copy of the instructions to find the final resting place of Ramla." She repeated what I said in Arabic, and as the faces of the two men darkened, I hastily continued on. "I'm the only one who knows what was on that paper. I have it memorized. If they want to find Ramla, they're going to have to keep me alive - otherwise the information will be lost."

After Femi repeated my words, the men glanced at each other, unsure what to do. Both of them pocketed their guns in an almost-sad manner.

"So," I finished, "I'll make a deal with you - them - whoever. In exchange for not killing me - or Femi," my eyes darted towards the Egyptian, "- I'll give you the information you want whenever you need it. But only as long as you don't kill either of us."

After the final translation was done, the two baffled men exchanged another incredulous glance, and then bolted out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

Femi sighed as well. "I hate to admit it," she grumbled, "but that is a good plan, Madie. It may very well keep up both alive. I assume they are going to talk to their boss; those two cannot be more than simpleminded guards. The brawn of the group, and nothing more."

I nodded, picking up the pitcher and kicking the dead snake remains across the room. I wondered how it had even gotten _in _here . . .

The men returned one extremely long, agitating and boring hour later. They said something to Femi before turning and leaving right away, not letting either of us get a word in.

She smiled, though, and turned to translate for me. "Their boss agreed to your plan. He will not kill us as long as we cooperate with his plans. Apparently, we must be ready to head out to the first destination tomorrow."

_The first destination . . ._ I think back to the paper that I had memorized; the paper I had looked over countless times, memorizing every curve and line in the hieroglyphics. _The first destination . . ._ the Great Temple of Ramses II.

**XxXxX**

As promised, we were blindfolded, handcuffed, and then loaded into the back of an airplane the next day. The ride was a bumpy and uncomfortable one, but it was short, and after a quick car ride we arrived at our destination.

The blindfolds were only removed once we were directly outside of the doors to the Temple. It was night, and the place should've been closed, but I guess our kidnappers had connections, as they were able to get us in without questions.

The façade of the building was roughly 30 meters high and 40 meters long. I stared up at the four huge, and expertly crafted, statues guarding the entrance. They were each the same giant sculpture of Ramses II, a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, with his hands on his thighs. They seemed to stare down at me as I stood quietly, returning their never-ending watchful gaze. One of the sculptures, which were as big as the temple façade itself, was missing a head.

I would've liked to admire the outside more - I was an archaeology student, after all, and the famous Indiana Jones just so happened to be my mentor - but Femi and I were ushered inside by our captors as soon as we had got there.

The temple was pretty much one huge room, filled with more colossal statues, but this time of the Ancient Egyptian god Osiris (although he did have the features of Ramses II). Each colossus was roughly 10 meters high, and there were eight of them - four lining each side of the room. All the statues held a sceptre and a flail, while the ones on the left wore the white crown of Upper Egypt and the ones on the right had the double crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. The terrifying and majestic vulture goddess was painted on the ceiling.

"_Whoa_," I couldn't help but gasp at the architectural accomplishments the Egyptians had made so long ago. Someone smacked me upside the head, urging me to keep quiet.

Femi and I had both been forced to wear dark brown cloaks, made of some sort of scratchy material on the inside and a smooth fabric on the outside. The cloaks brushed against our toes and had hoods, which we wore to cover our faces. Everyone in our ensemble was wearing the cloaks. What they were for, I didn't know, but it made it difficult to tell who Femi was and who the enemies were. And although I felt sheepish to admit it, I felt mysterious with the hood up. Like a secret spy, or something.

Our group of people - there were around seven of us, including me, Femi, and our two burly bodyguards - drifted silently down the temple hall, between the rows of statues. At the very back of the temple was a wall, covered in hieroglyphics and paintings; I didn't get time to admire them though, because Femi was pushed into the wall as a man said something in Arabic.

"They want me to get the clue," she explained fearfully, "just in case it's booby-trapped."

I scrunched up my nose. "Tell them that's not fair. I won't reveal the details of the other places unless they get one of their own men to do it." Thank God the original cavern with the hieroglyphics in it was destroyed in that flood; otherwise they'd have no reason to keep us alive.

Femi repeated what I had said in Arabic, and one of our bodyguards was shoved forwards, grumbling. He started to tap on the wall, looking for a hollow spot; there was one right behind a painting of a black cat. What a surprise. The man took one of the tools my escorts had brought, and gently removed the piece from the wall, like a tile. Behind it sat a tiny black piece identical to the two we already had, except the end without the curve on it was a _lot_ fatter.

He grinned and sighed in relief when nothing jumped out at him, passing the piece to one of the cloaked figures. The precious black object disappeared into the folds of their robe, and then we started moving again.

Well, not all of us. I hung back, putting out a hand to prevent Femi from leaving, as well. The brown cloaks made it seem as if we were two people of the actual party hanging back, not the captives.

They were about halfway down the hall when I turned and stuck my hands in the foot-by-foot hole in the wall; the one where the piece had been found. The man hadn't bothered to put the tile back, and so now I was taking the chance to explore the hole on my own.

Femi had been right. There should've been booby-traps. The Egyptians were well-known for protecting their stuff from looters and thieves, so this had been just _too_ easy. The piece in the pyramid hadn't exactly been suspicious, because the part of the wall blocking the shaft that the piece had been in was pretty secure. It would've been impossible to get that stone back out once it was put in, when Ramla had just been killed. Over time it had loosened, luckily for us.

My hands groped along the bottom edges of the hole, thinking that maybe there was a false bottom. Instead, I heard a soft _click_. A tile just above the hole my hands were in slid off to the side, revealing a hole that was the exact same size and shape as the one I had been looking in.

Reaching up, I was surprised when my hands closed around a cold, heavy and small object - a black piece identical to the one my captor had found.

I knew _I_ had the right piece when the temple started shaking.

"Duck!" I screamed at Femi as boulders cascaded from a hidden alcove above our heads. I heard our kidnappers start yelling from the other side of the temple, but by the time they had figured out it was us who was missing, the boulders had succeeded in completely cutting us off from them.

A smile crept across my face and I put my hood up, grabbing Femi by the wrist and pulling her out of the emergency exit door that had been placed in the back of the temple for tourists. Smoke stared to fill the temple; maybe a booby-trap had set something on fire. I didn't know – I wasn't going to hang around to find out. Not only were we escaping - but we had the real piece.

**XxXxX**

_Review responses to . . . _

_**SerenityAngels: **_Okay, okay, I updated xD Hopefully you'll review again though, if you're still around! ;)

_**Belle of Books: **_WHOO! Thank you so much for being my 100th reviewer. It means the world to me. And yes, I will update more often . . . but it'll take me a while to get into the groove of things. Sorry about that. Anyways, I'm glad you liked the thing between Indy and Mutt – I'll be sure to continue it! I hope to hear from you again soon! ;)

_**MandaPanda89: **_That's great to know! I hope this chapter was up to your standards. Please review again soon – I love hearing from you :)

_**Melody: **_Thanks for showing concern :} It's great to hear from you. I'm sorry about the sporadic updating. By the way, sorry if you're dead yet from anticipation! I don't think this chapter exactly measured up to what I was hoping for, but oh well. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this chapter!

_**x XRoweenaJAugustineX x: **__GAHHHH! _Not fluffy!O_o Just give me one more chance . . . please? _Please? _AHHHH! FLUFFY! NOOOOOOOOO!  
>Haha, anyways, great to know you're still around. Can't wait to hear from you again!<p>

_**BookGal26: **_Oh, thanks! I think my chapters are too long, so it's good to know that you like the length. Anyway, sorry about the long wait O_o Hopefully this chapter, and its conclusion, was okay for you! Can't wait to hear from you again :)

_**KrazyCookieRaider: **_Well then, thanks for that smiley face. See, here's one of my own: :) Haha. Anyway, there you go – I updated. And Happy New Year to you, too! Great to hear from you twice, haha. It just goes to show how slow I am at updating O_o Hope to hear from you again this chapter!

_**Merlincrazy: **_Great to hear from you! And, yes, Henry Jones Senior _will_ have a part in this. You'll just have to wait for him to make an appearance, though ;) Can't wait to hear from you again, and thank you for sticking with me for an entire year! (I'm pretty sure it's been a year since I first posted KoP. Anyway, thanks!)

_**HealingSpringWaters: **_Great to hear from a new person! I love getting new readers/reviewers. Wow, that was a lot of compliments. Thank you so, so, so much for all those kind words :) Those were some of the best things one could say to an author on here! So thank you :) And as to your prediction about Femi . . . well, I'm not gonna say anything about that. Hope to hear from you again! It's great to get a new reviewer :P

_**WriterWade: **_Well hello there ;) great to see you've followed me onto this story! As I've said in our PMs, your comments are incredibly kind and they mean a lot to me. Thanks so much for letting me know your opinion, and for giving me your time. It's great to hear from new people :) And no, I've sadly never been to Egypt. But I'm glad you think my descriptions sound good, considering I have no idea what anything looks like there! Happy to know you like Angie, too xD Hope to hear from you again, too – I love reading your reviews!

_**Camilia85560: **_Haha, thanks for correcting my French xD Et, peut-être il est vivant . . . peut-être il n'est pas ;) Ca c'est un très bon « trick » pour lire les histoires! (Okay, I know that French was terrible, but I'm tired :P) Peut-être je vais le faire avec les histoires que j'aime qui sont dans une langue comme, hmm, Espagnol, ou quelque chose! J'espère que vous avez aimé cette chapitre . . . a' bientôt! And Happy New Year to you too! :)

_**Jade Opal:**_ I'm glad to know you like my story! Hopefully you'll review again – it's great to hear from new people :P Thanks so much for the compliments!

_**PureLove14: **_Well hello there, Alyssa ;) Thanks so much! I love your story as well :P Can't wait to read the next chapter – send it to me soon! And please review my story as well :P.

_**The one who breathes nitrogen: **_Thanks! I'm glad you liked that chapter, and hopefully you'll review this one, too! I'll definitely keep that _Grease _thing in mind ;) and your other advice shall hopefully come into play later in the story, so just hang in there! Thanks so much for the comments! :)

_**RogueMetamorph: **_Aww, I liked it when you told me "every single little moment that [you] loved!" It's nice for me to read the little things ^_^ Sorry about the slow updates, though. I'm planning on working on the next chapter tonight, if that's any consolation. Plus, you read my mind – I was going to put in some Mutt insight even before you posted that :P It didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it too, though. This chapter was really hard for me to write :( And I love to hear that you're telling your friend about my story (where no one pukes rainbows xD) It means a lot to me. Honestly, I always look forward to your reviews. And yes, the Jones family needs a counsellor xD Thanks so much for your compliments – I hope you tell me what you think about this chapter, as well. And hmm . . . maybe I need a frying pan of my own . . . –O Haha. Until next time! Thanks so much for the long review :D

Hoo boy. You guys have _no _idea how long it took me to write all those. It equalled up to over 1000 words O_o Anyway, please leave a review, and keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter! Thank you all _so _much!

Lexi


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